


All's Fair in Love, War, and Murder

by DestinyFreeReally



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-08-22 06:51:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 44,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8276737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: An alternative scenario of catching Lillys killer. Starts S1, Logan dating Other, can our two tragic leads figure out love and murder in Neptune without actually killing eachother.





	1. Status Quo

Logan wakes up, guilt heavy in chest like everyday- for what, he doesn't examine. The cheap motel room wallpaper is even more offensive in the daylight and he knows if he hurries he can make it to first period before Neptune High calls his house for being late. That would be a plus, if he could just get moving.

He showers uneventfully, mental clock checking back in and out to remind him he really doesn't want to be late. It's good he has to be quick though, because he really doesn't want to keep thinking. That was the problem with showering and sleeping alone- so much extra time for thinking.

Even as he's leaving the lobby, flicking on his sunglasses and getting into his car, he knows he's thinking too much.

"Hey, Ronnie," he sing-songed, happy to see the tiny blonde in the school parking lot if only as a much-welcome distraction. "So what'd Neptune High's resident social leper do this weekend?" He offered her a too-sweet smile, not put off by her glare.

Veronica was exhausted, she'd spent the weekend her dad was out of town chasing the ghost that was her mother through the desert towns of California. Getting in late last night was her own fault, she'd been thinking just a couple more bars to look through, she could feel she was getting close it was driving her crazy; that and Logan Echolls. 

"Mmm- don't tell me you're getting all jealous on me now." Folding her arms over her chest she willed her feet towards her first class. Of course, Logan would be there. Barring any miraculous unfortunate events involving mysterious falling pianos or anvils.

"No, just wanna know which of my friends should get checked for an std this time." He followed her into first period. Geography could hardly be considered his strong suit- was it anyone's?- and first period on a Monday was just cruel. 

"Oh your friends should all get checked regardless of what I was doing this weekend. Dick could probably give himself the clap, and I heard that new strain of VD Missy has is transferable just by proximity." Not one of her prouder moments, she could admit. But was she supposed to feel bad for Missy? Or Logan? Because she really, really didn't. Maybe even couldn't. Logan's features faltered a second, then returned to willful nonchalance. 

He could believe that she somehow knew, from her crystal ball of sleuthiness that Missy had asked him to get the hotel room for last night and then stood him up. But she wasn't throwing it in his face exactly. And she would have no reason to know. 

"Oh, Veronica. You eat those jugulars for breakfast, don't you?" He relented, minutely, falling back on a trick he picked up a few weeks ago. Call the frigid bitch a frigid bitch and sometimes she cracked. A spade sorry for being a spade. It could've been sad, Logan figured, if it mostly didn't want to make him laugh. 

"Yep. Better than Wheaties for you, they say. The fiber and everything." Her voice sounded tired, even to her, and that pissed her off. Logan Echolls pissed her off. 

The twitch in the corner of her tight, pink mouth had been what he was after, and as usual Veronica didn't disappoint, even if momentarily. That second of self doubt he could cause her. It turned him on, in a way he self diagnosed as somewhat sick- knowing he could get to her, even eventually. 

The first bell rung and Veronica sighed and took her seat. She'd meant to go over last night's info and the ground she'd left uncovered before class. Lunch it would have to be.


	2. Desperate Times, Desperate Logan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan has a problem and Veronica's sure she doesn't care. Unless..

     It's a full two days before Logan's back in her annoy-o-sphere; when he features front and center waiting at her locker after school.   
  
    "Hmm. I'm sure I didn't order one of those for delivery." She feigns mock confusion and doesn't miss his face of misery or the way he twists against the lockers as she changes out her books. She's tired, cranky, hungry, and wants to go home. Whatever Logan's issue is today, has to be Logan's issue today, she decides, barely looking up to meet his still-silent glare.   
  
   "You, uh, still do things for people right? Daddy's little sidekick spy, with the tearing relationships apart and instant karma and camera snapping." He gestured to the camera hanging around her messenger bag.  
  
    Slamming her locker closed, she took a deep breath and kept walking, Logan ever in tow like the world's most annoying baby duckling.   
  
     "I can do favors, for money and people I like." She was chipper on purpose, by force, almost at the door, keeping her eyes down and away from the way his mouth was all twisted up.  
  
     "What about for a  _lot_ of money for a guy you can't stand?" His tone is miserable, even he hears it, and he almost grabs her arm to plead with her, like they're friends or she cares whether he sleeps at night. Besides, something reminds him that kicked puppies were kind of always her thing. "If I had anyone else to ask..."  
  
    She hears him and wonders if that's even true anymore beyond on paper. On paper she can't stand Logan Echolls. On paper he's her tormentor, someone to despise, someone to inevitably crush, like she figures she will. But the sad parallels she never asked for... not to mention all that  _history_.... Yeah, he was right, she couldn't stand him.   
  
    "Buy me a burger for my time and I'll listen to your plight- no promises. And you better be serious about that  _lot_ of money thing." She talks with her finger pointed at him for effect, and there's a hint of a sad smile playing on his lips; the sad hope she recognizes from some of her dad's clients. Her day just got longer and the history between her and Logan Echolls continues.   
  
   She's in the Xterra and its familiar, a reminder that there was friendship before the carnage, before now when they were actually friends. It's annoying and she squashes it, insulting the ugly yellow color if only in her head.   
  
    "So, what's your problem?" She goes for the direct approach- it's not like he's shown her mercy in months, she reminds herself. Softness was a character trait she'd deleted to protect herself, and she wasn't about to reinstate it just because the Xterra was ugly.   
  
   "Well," he cleared his throat, pulling into the diner's lot. He sighed, looking over at her blank, waiting expression. "I think Missy's cheating on me. But I've redialed numbers, and can't pin down who the guy is. I want you to find out."  
  
   Veronica chewed a lip and hopped out of the Xterra, all sorts of confused. The low hanging fruit was ripe for throwing at him, and she pulled back. Maybe she  _could_ feel bad for Logan Echolls.   
  
    "What makes you think she's seeing someone else?" Veronica reminds herself to go slow, pretend it's one of her dad's cases. Usually, people that come to them for help, already really know the truth. It's a 'if you're asking the question, you know the answer' situation, usually. Some partners just wanna know who, some need proof for divorce settlements... She wants to ask Logan  _why_ he'd come to her about this, but holds that back.   
  
    "Uh," Logan sighed, looking away. One last moment before jumping off the cliff into 'Help me, Veronica' waters. "The random numbers on her phone calling all hours of the night, the weird conversations to get out of plans, the standing me up, the lack of interest in  _two-person-Twister_."  
  
    Veronica remembered up close and personally the kind of perks Logan Echolls could provide as a boyfriend. Lilly had gotten away with- well, not murder, but close- with Logan, out of  _love_ or something, and Veronica could see how Missy cheating might bring up painful memories, involving Lilly and not.   
  
    They eat, they chatter, she'll take his case for eight hundred dollars, a fee she's never even thought about charging before, and he agrees because he needs her. He doesn't say it again, that he doesn't have anyone else to ask, but 5:00 burgers with her; she could connect the dots.   
  
    "Do you remember you told Lilly about seeing me kiss...shit, I can't even remember who." His eyebrow quirks in maybe-guilt, and she misses talking about Lilly. Like really, really misses talking about Lilly with someone who loved her before her death, not just after.   
  
    "Yeah, I do. She  _flipped._ I didn't- I really didn't think she'd react like that. Not completely like that, anyway." Sipping a coke, she's not sure where this is going, if this is why he's been harassing her for months, if he just misses talking about Lilly, too.   
  
    "You were her friend; I know why you told her." All of a sudden his fries are incredible dry, even with ketchup, and he remembers pouring all the hate of missing Lilly into ruining Veronica Mars' day.   
  
    "I told her because, because- look, I know, she wasn't always-  _great_ to you, I know that better than anyone. But she loved you, and always expected you to be great to her, you know? I don't know. I wish I wanted to take it back; if she'd still be alive-"  
  
    "That's enough. Check, please." Logan gestured to the waiter, tearing his eyes away from the necklace around Veronica's neck- Lilly's necklace. "Just find the dude my girlfriend's banging so I can pound on his head a little, okay. You can have whatever you want." 


	3. Con-fron-tation Six-ty Four, No Re-peats or He-si-tations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica meets a friend (?) about a girl

     "You know, for a guy who hates Logan Echolls, you two  _sure_ have a lot in common." The next day, Veronica waited for Weevil by his cherished bike, not missing the grimace on his face at seeing her there.   
  
     Following Missy after eating with Logan had been fruitful, not to mention easy. Exactly sixty-four minutes in Weevil's apartment, and Veronica could guess what they'd done for five or six of them, at least.   
  
    "Don't know what you mean, V, and I don't know why you're making that face at me. You know what your problem is? You have judgey eyelashes." Weevil hated that he liked Veronica. Not get-matching-tattoos liked, and not make-babies-with liked, just liked her. Even though she was so close to being one of  _them_ , even her perfume smelled like privilege.   
  
    "I'm going to tell Logan. I just thought you should know first. Can I ask a question- merely curiosity's sake?" Crossing her arms over her chest, she let the wind ruffle her bangs. "Is it that you hate 09ers that much that you bang their girlfriends? Do they remind you of  _someone?_ Do Missy's lips taste like beer or something what is it?"  She paused seeing his jaw tighten.   
  
    "Back off, Veronica. Maybe I just like the way your boy Logan sends 'em out all repressed and wanting. What's it to  _you_ anyway, you guys like bosom buddies now?" Weevil shrugged on his helmet.   
  
   "I'd keep that helmet on if I were you; I'm telling Logan." Mixed feelings about  _that_ , aside, she was still trying to figure out what to say to Logan to  _not_ start Neptune WWIII.   
    
     "Hey, V." Flipping up his helmet, he talked lower. "Look, I don't know for sure, but it kind of seemed like- I wasn't the only strange Missy was getting, you know?"  
  
    Veronica pursed her lips and nodded, then watched the bike pull away to its thunderous exit music.   
  
     _My house in 20. Bring your cash I've hit paydirt._ She contemplated fora minute, then sent the text. Now for the  _really_ uncomfortable part.   
  
  
  
  
    With his face crumpling oddly like that, Veronica wasn't sure which part of this hurt Logan more; that Missy was  _definitely_ cheating, or that she was  _definitely cheating_ with Weevil. He'd came in, handed her the cash, made an offhand joke about her shoebox apartment, and then it was right to the meat of the matter.   
  
    "I want to  _see_ it." His fists were balled, eyes angry and away from her face. "I need to see it."  
  
    "Logan..." Veronica knew that had Incredibly Bad Idea written all over it. It could only bring devastation and probably violence, she was sure he mentioned pounding.   
  
     "Take me with you." He met her eyes finally, slowly and surely.   
  
     "You do  _everything_ I say.  _Everything_. You don't twitch a muscle unless I tell you to." She rubbed her face in her hands;  _incredibly. bad. idea._


	4. The Stake-Out and Bombshell

     "It's been two hours. Maybe she's in for the night." Logan whined, hopeful and uneasy. They'd been through a Big Mac each, fries, Doritos, and he'd had a milkshake she'd warned against and now knew why.  He was thinking tonight was a bust, more than a bust, he reminded himself, because he'd spent way too much time with Veronica Mars.   
  
     "Easy, boy, you wanna catch this cheater or don't you?" Veronica figured she was genuinely asking. She'd seen the face of her dad's clients who changed their mind about answers they didn't like.   
  
     "I wanna see her snuggling up to a dirty PCHer, not sit outside her house in your sad little car. Seriously, I must be the only one you've ever charged a small fortune to if you're still driving this around." He knocked his foot on the LeBaron's dash for effect, openly laughing at her in a way that grit her teeth.   
  
     " _Usually_ I can offer a friends and family discount," shooting him a look, until something caught her eye. "Your girl's on the move."   
  
    Missy crept around the side of her house to her Miata, shutting the door quietly before she got in. Car in the driveway and still trying to sneak out; Veronica remembered hanging out with kids who's parents just plain didn't care what they were up to until it was inconvenient.   
  
    Logan's cellphone ringtone made them  _both_ jump, and Veronica bit back a snipe about taking calls on a stake out.   
  
     "It's Missy." He blinked at Veronica, suddenly feeling incredibly weird about this whole thing, tenfold. But he was sure Missy was cheating, he just wanted to know with whom.   
  
     "Hey darling," He said, giving Veronica a big, fake smile to roll her eyes at.   
  
     "Speaker!" Veronica whispered.  
  
      "Hey, baby! I just called your house and your dad said you weren't home; are you gonna be busy all night?" The miata didn't leave the driveway just yet.  
  
       Veronica exaggeratedly nodded her head, prompting Logan.   
  
      "Uh, yeah. Busy. Out. You know." Unsure features on his face, he shrugged at Veronica.   
  
      "Okay, baby. We'll have fun some other time." Missy's voice was as irritating as Veronica remembered it.   
  
       "Okay, sure, another night. I love you." Logan said, dryly, while Veronica inspected a fingernail.  
  
       "Gotta go, babe, see ya." The line cut off anticlimactically, as the Miata pulled away, Veronica tugging Logan lower in his seat- just in case, shooting him a look.   
  
       Veronica waited a beat, giving Missy some space for a few seconds.  
  
       " _So_ , was that as weird as it sounded to me?" She started up the LeBaron, keeping her eyes off Logan's plain-faced confusion.  
  
      "Oh yeah, I wanna know what the hell that was." He flipped his phone open and closed a couple times, leaning his elbows on his knees.  
  
        They followed along for a few streets, Veronica getting a bad feeling like a spidey-sense curse. This was going to be so bad.   
  
       "If she's going to Weevil's she has the world's  _suckiest_ navigation system." Veronica let herself think outloud. She hadn't told Logan about Weevil's suggestion of other guys, but it wasn't looking great as far as confirming that negative. Logan's head was in his hands. A redlight held them up, a car behind Missy's.   
  
    "So, this is, uh, what you do, huh? You know, when I pictured you all commando spy, there was a little more leather." He breathed, trying to get distance from what was actually happening. Stalking his girlfriend in Veronica Mars' car; suddenly the LeBaron felt even smaller than shoebox-sized.   
  
    Looking over at him, she was glad he was keeping his head relatively down. She didn't figure Missy Blake for spotting a tail, but she'd made mistakes assuming about clients before. This would be easier if he just kept his head down.   
  
    "Actually, leather's really more my other gig." She saw him look to her, almost surprised, and a smile played on her lips. "You know, the one the whole school talks about... the exotic dancing in biker bars," Cute smile baring teeth, she winked at him, her mouth tasting bitter even as he looked a shred guilty. "So you love Missy, huh?" She keeps her head straight forward then, deciding the way Miss doesn't signal her turns is supremely interesting.   
  
    "Yeah you know. Aside from the lying and cheating and using me for my money. She's a real  _peach_." If Logan ever thought about love, he sure as hell didn't think too hard about defining it, especially not in Veronica Mars' passenger seat, stalking his girlfriend. "Didn't I just tell Missy I wasn't home? Maybe she knows we're following her." In a second, theres a montage of uncomfortable playing in his head- pummeling Weevil he imagined, chewing out Veronica for being wrong he imagined- Missy turning around and finding him following her he didn't think to prep for.   
  
     "Relax, she doesn't know." Veronica barely tried not to be dismissive, and Logan's surprised when her certainty almost  _does_ relax him. Three times Missy had looked into the rearview on the whole drive over, and once had been to check her teeth for lipstick, Veronica didn't add.   
       
      Veronica keeps driving past Logan's driveway where Missy pulled in, and swings a u-turn to park in front of the Echolls' lawn, just a safe distance in front where they could still watch Missy get out of her car.  
  
     "She's going around  _back?_ " He feels like a sports commentator with the play-by-play but he's just so damned confused.   
  
     Veronica is too, for a few more seconds, before Aaron Echolls comes to the patio and his face gets sucked halfway into Missy's mouth and there's a strange 'click' in Veronica's head.   
  
     "What, um, what's happening there." Logan can't breathe at all- he was sure three hours ago that Missy cheating with Weevil Navarro would kill him and instead- well, at least him and his dad finally had some common ground, he thought bitterly.  "I'm gonna be sick," he ducks out of the car quickly, doubled over in his own bushes, dry heaving, thinking about it.   
  
     "Get back in the car, Logan, you're gonna blow our cover." She keeps her voice hushed, close to him, kneeling with him, mind already calculating a next move.   
  
     "This is my own  _house_ , Veronica, what on Earth would you think that I'm not welcome here-" He turned away from her to vomit; thanking god he didn't hear her say 'I told you so' about the milkshake now watering his shrubbery.   
  
      "Logan, get back in the car, okay? Let's talk about this." Chewing her lip now helps her stay calm, helps her stay rational. "C'mon, Logan, you said you'd listen to me if I brought you, please get back in the car." She reached her hand for his shoulder, and he shrugged it off like it burned him.   
  
     "Yeah, some  _favor_ you did me here. I also said I loved Missy, or did you believe that, too?" The edge of his voice could cut glass, and Veronica realizes she'd be stunned or hurt if this wasn't the Logan Echolls she most recognized now. If Logan Echolls could still hurt her.   
  
    He gets back in the car without another word, still out of breath, and Veronica pulls away from the house, looking at its lawn in the rearview. Her watch says quarter-to-nine, and she knows she's getting dangerously close to not beating her dad home.   
  
    "You know, the other night, Missy told me to get a hotel room, we'd make a romantic weekend out of it, get  _out of the house_ ," Shaky-hands through his hair he wondered if something this sick, this messed up, was actually just classic Aaron Echolls. "When I told my dad I'd got stood up and Missy never showed, you know what he said? He actually said he'd cover the hotel bill- just like that- to 'make me feel better.'" Logan scoffed, choking back hot tears Veronica pretended not to see or understand.   
  
    "Are you going to tell your mom?" She asks quietly, still not looking at him, stopping in front of where they'd left the Xterra.   
  
    He shrugged.   
  
    "She  _knows_ he cheats on him, what would be the point? She lets it happen." In his head, Logan just kept seeing his girlfriend, now decidedly  _ex_ , making out with his dead. "Guess I can't really go home, huh?" He laughed, short and bitter, a tone Veronica recognized.   
  
    "I'd invite you back home, but," But today had been terrible and most of all she just wanted to shower and pretend the things people did to eachother could be explained or justified. She wanted to go home, tuck herself in, and be away from the world with all its barbs for five minutes.   
  
    "Relax, Veronica, it's not like we're friends, right?" His half smile is back, angry and self-conscious, and mocking, and its incredibly familiar to her, even welcome.   
  
    "Right." She sighed. "Logan-" He got out of the car, walked around to the Xterra.   
  
    "Look, Veronica, I don't know what the standard Nancy Drew gossip policy is-" His eyes looked puffy already, fumbling for his keys in his pockets.   
  
    "There's an understanding of confidentiality." Her mouth went tight, clinical.   
  
     " _Super._ " He rolled his eyes, angry at every single thing he could think of; disgusted, even with her. "Think I'll go to Duncan's, see if I can get loaded enough to not want a lobotomy. Your services have been unparalled."  
  
     She hears his anger with her, and can't believe he's trying to hold her at all responsible for this, until she reminds herself her dad sees this, too. Total strangers, with no personal vendetta against him, casting him as the villain just because he told the story.   
  
     "Logan if you could  _not_ tell Duncan about  _my services_ necessarily-" She caught his eye, wincing a little bit. Not necessarily embarrassed, she reminded herself. If her and Duncan were going to be strangers, then they'd be strangers. There was no reason for him to know anything about her if he was going to continue like she was invisible to the human eye.   
  
    "I'm not telling Duncan about this." Logan decides as he says it, he thinks that a family trait, but he makes the decision nonetheless. The less people who knew the better, he figured. Repress, deny, move on.  
  
    "That's your call," She nodded. "I might have an idea how to make them pay for this, if you're interested in giving me some time to think on it. Another Veronica special- this one's on the house." The mental image of Aaron Echolls making out with a girl a year younger than her was going to go nowhere until she could at least try to make him regret it.   
  
     Working with Veronica again, being around her, wasn't especially tempting. But revenge? That might be an endeavor worth pursuing.   
  
    "Oh, I'm in."


	5. Chaos in the Courtyard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> all bad things must come to a head. some sooner than later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for logan's canon-typical racism

     Wallace threw down his books haphazardly to their lunch table, disrupting Veronica's hole-burning stare into 09er-land. In the short time he'd known her, fierce determination and single-mindedness had come to scare him, and the scowl she was wearing looked familiar.   
  
    "I know that look. That look means trouble." He sighed, unwrapping his lunch, waiting for her to spill.   
  
    "Nope. No trouble." Shrugging her shoulders, the picture of innocence, she put on her best convincing face. Missy was putting on a show of her own, worthy of at least a few minor acting awards. Veronica had been watching her cry for five whole minutes without shedding a single tear. "I'm too cute to be in trouble." She smiled.   
  
    "Even cute puppies can bite your hand off." He looked unimpressed. "If you're not dishing, that's fine, I'm patient. And I actually heard something you might be interested in."  
  
    "Sting is coming to Neptune to choose his next ex-wife, and I'm on all the shortlists in  _People_ magazine?" Her eyebrows quirked, she popped a grape into her mouth- finally taking her eyes off of Missy in her time of true greek tragedy, gross feelings included.   
  
    "Not quite." Wallace deadpanned. "Apparently, Logan trashed Weevil's bike, and gave his helmet a new paint job of,  _apparently_ an unsavory male-ad with Weevil's cell number on it."   
  
    Veronica dropped her fork, mid scoop of mystery-meat mush, sighing. If lucking out with Wallace and her dad meant every single other man in her life had to make things incredibly hard, Veronica sighed about the long life of misery she had ahead of her.   
  
    "I'm in trouble." She gave her best friend a smile he could practically hear her asking favors from.   
  
    " _V!"_ On cue, Weevil Navarro shouted across the school's courtyard, making her turnaround. "I  _know_ you don't think we're cool." He charged across the courtyard, stopping when Logan Echolls stepped into his path.   
  
    Veronica eyed Missy curiously, she'd returned to miming another crying jag, and pretending like hell wasn't about to unleash over her.  Logan and Weevil eyed eachother  few seconds, Logan stepping closer, chest puffed and smile sparkling. He'd  _enjoyed_ destroying Weevil's bike- he took a bat to it, he dented it, he scratched it, and worse. The only thing that stopped him from laying it out and running it over was it'd ruin the new tires on the Xterra, and even that had almost not been enough to stop him.   
  
    "Oh! You got my message? I know it wasn't in Spanish, did your ESL tutor haveta help you sound it out?" Logan pushed Weevil back a few steps, earning him a nasty, PCH-leader-level glare.   
  
     Blinking her eyes slow, with a deep breath, Veronica knew this could only get uglier before it got prettier.   
  
     "Believe me, I can read the numbers on the damages check your daddy's gonna write me just fine." Weevil lunged, but Logan swung the first punch, and then there was a wave of chaos through the lunch period. Not many things could rile a student body like a fight, especially one involving class warfare re: PCHers v. 09ers.  
  
     Veronica ran towards them, Wallace beside her even as he rolled his eyes, an _I knew it_ on his tongue.   
  
    Logan got in a few quick, wild punches, before other PCHers piled on, inciting Duncan and Dick to get involved and escalate the party to a brawl.   
  
    "Please tell me you have nothing to do with this." Wallace knew it was asking too much, even as he said it, and went to pull Logan off Weevil, tossing him back into the crowd that had gathered.   
  
    "Look man-" Weevil went to charge again, Logan's blood on his knuckles satisfying as ever.  
  
     "Stop!" Veronica cut him off, putting her hand on his shoulder as an attempt to hold him back. "You've had enough." She hoped her lips weren't shaking as much as she felt like they were, facing both Weevil's and Logan's angry faces.   
  
    Weevil dusted off his jacket after a few tense seconds, pulled himself back from the contact of her hand, and Logan wiped his bloody nose on his sleeve.   
  
   "You've  _all_ had enough. Detention for all of you- don't make that face, Mr. Echolls, you're lucky I don't do worse for on-grounds fighting. I'll see you all after school. Yes, you too, Ms. Mars and Mr. Fennell. You're always in the realm of trouble, aren't you?" At the emergence of Mr. Clemmons, the fight dissipated, all parties looking guilty, disheveled, and like no one had won anything. Veronica almost felt shaken up, and shot Logan a glare that she hoped communicated as much scorn as she meant it to. She walked off with Wallace, and Weevil, and Logan helped Duncan off the ground as their smiles returned.   
  
    "I  _told_ you he was going to be pissed." She muttered at Weevil, who for his part, almost looked sorry to her.   
  
    " _Pissed!_ " Logan laughed loud, getting their attention back. "That reminds me, you may want to think about replacing that _gas_ _tank_ , amigo."   
  
     Logan caught Veronica's disappointed face, for a second, and his smile dimmed for a moment. But, Weevil's face was too good not to enjoy. So he laughed again. Some days, it was tough being Logan Echolls, and some days it was fun as hell. 


	6. Daddy Issues

    Things are tense, somehow through the whole school, like they've ripped off some sort of band-aid. Veronica remembered the last time it was like this; this bad. Detention had only been the beginning of conflict, and it made Veronica think about Lilly. Losing her best friend had been the hardest thing in the world, but she thinks about the funeral, sad and tragic, but really the eye of that storm. The funeral had been civil, had been touching, had been sweet at times. Lilly may have been the top of the Neptune social ladder, but everybody ten pegs below couldn't help but adore from afar. There'd been kids at the funeral she'd never seen in her classes, and Veronica tried not to think about that now, where the student population had divided and conquered itself, over a lunchtime brawl over a girl. Well, actually, Lilly would've loved that if it would've been her.   
  
    On the one hand, Veronica doesn't care. School's been uncomfortable, and difficult for her for months. Until Wallace she'd been a one-lady island, doomed to drift alone, everyone else would just have to figure out how to float, too.   
  
    " _Veronica._ " Wallace is frowning at her, and she knows she hasn't been listening very well.   
  
    "Sorry," She pushed stray bangs out of her face, and really felt sorry. "Before Logan and Weevil and Missy I'd been  _close_ to tracking down my mom and now she kind of disappeared again, you know? And its like. Why  _bother,_ you know?"   
     
       “Why _bother?_ Why bother what?” He still feels like he can’t quite get her attention, catch her eye; she’s talking to him, but also herself, and it’s weird to him that she needs that sometimes. “Don’t you have any normal hobbies, like-”  
  
   “Like other kids whose best friends didn’t get murdered and whose dad’s didn’t accuse Mr.Kane of the murder?” Sarcastic smile to boot, she’s at least paying attention to him now. “Sorry, Wallace. I’ve just been distracted. I was taking Logan’s money _as_ a distraction, but this whole thing with Weevil and..” _And Mr. Echolls_ , which she couldn’t tell Wallace about. Missy was still wandering around school  snooty and faux-dumbfounded even after a week of the class warfare Logan had started. Actually, Veronica could believe it was genuine dumbfoundedness, since the girl thought it would be cool to date a guy, and also date the guy’s dad. Not to mention someone else, who happens to lead a big, scary, motorcycle gang.   
  
  Veronica wasn’t sure what the right play was for all this. Logan could definitely afford to get Weevil a new motorcycle, but Veronica was willing to bet on a cold day in Neptune Hell before that happened. Crooked nose and all, Logan had found a way to smile about his girlfriend cheating on him, and she didn’t bet he’d be willing to take that back for much.   
  
   “It’s just getting out of hand,”She finished, making her apologetic-face at Wallace.   
  
  “Veronica Mars misses her mommy?” Wallace tried to make her smile. Having not met Lianne Mars, he hasn’t decided what he thinks of her. Someone who took the whole ‘when the going get’s tough, the tough get going’ saying to heart, he thinks, eyeing Veronica who he can’t imagine backing down from anything. “Not to give you another project, but we actually have to do that chem project.”   
  
    She groans, and she feels like still groaning when he comes over after school to do the project. It’s mostly painless once she heaps on the sarcasm and orders them pizza; pizza’s still brainfood, even to outcast teenagers, she thinks, and they press on with their grape soda and antacid experiment. After wiping up the last remnants of their flat grape soda, bored to tears with the concept of Antacids, Veronica gives Wallace a lift home, not mentioning she’s going to swing by Missy’s on her way back. At around eight, she gets to Missy’s parent’s house.  The miata’s in the drive, and Veronica plays a hunch that if she _just_ waits, Missy’ll make her night way more interesting than grape soda chemical reactions.   
  
  To kill time, she keeps one eye on Missy’s house, and the other on files on her mom, nagging nostalgia and anger swelling after a while. She remembers a time, before Lilly’s murder and Logan’s daily torture and the alienation that comes with being a pariah, where her mom used to tease her about Duncan or compliment her sundresses. If things had gotten different at school in the past year, they sure got different at home, too. There’d been a gray period, where things were developing into something bad. Before they’d moved, and before her mom left, before things were even _that_ bad at school. Right after Lilly’s death, when people pitied her instead of hating her. That truly had been the gray period, she thinks. Holding tight to that 09er life, before everything in her world turned to absolute pillars of sand.   
  
  At ten thirty, Missy’s going out again, this time going through the front door, so Veronica can guess it’s either sanctioned or her parents aren’t home. Keith Mars is usually one of the only parents Veronica can think of that don’t mind their kids gallivanting on school nights; its why Veronica’s naps in class stand out so much, not that she minds.   
  
  Tailing Missy to the Echolls house has its appropriate gross, unsettling dejavu, and Veronica wonders if she should call Logan to see if he’s inside or not, but she hasn’t spoken to Logan since the day of the lunchroom brawl, and she’s not exactly dying to make contact after the year of seemingly endless ruthless material at her expense. Her hatred of cheaters and her hatred of Logan Echolls could comfortably coexist just fine. She’s just here for a job, she reminds herself; not thinking about all the days and nights she spent at the Echolls’ when the Fab Four used to come here and couple off.   
  
  When the door opens to Missy, it’s Aaron who welcomes her in, and while they greet hello in the icky way with open mouth kissing, Veronica snaps a money shot- out of habit and _just in case_. Mrs.Echolls needing proof her husband’s been having makeout sessions in her home with a teenager was sounding more and more like a likelihood as one of her dad’s next cases, Veronica figured. Regretfully, with slow, deliberate movement, she keeps an eye on the house once the door closes, and flips out her phone; calling Logan.  _For the job,_ she takes a deep breath.   
  
    "You sitting outside my house is getting well into creep territory, _Ronnie_." Logan sounds miserable, and smug even through the phone; she has to roll her eyes.   
  
    "You  _are_ aware, you're paying me to do this, right?" Her eyes scan the windows of the house, but don't see Logan at any of them. Headlights flash her twice from across the street down about five houses, and she rolls her eyes ever harder. "Did you buy that car just to sit in it?" She doesn't hold back the scoff in her throat.   
  
    "Let's just say me and  _Mr. Weevil_ came to a bit of an agreement. Nothing your poor, pretty head has to worry about. Emphasis on the poor. Well, before I hired you, anyway. Any reason you're calling me or did you just miss the sound of my voice all alone in that lemon?" 

      "Woah, woah, you and  _Weevil_ made a deal? So it  _is_ possible for you boys from different sides of the track to kiss and make up." Her voice is all forced-smile-stewardess, but its comfortable for her here now; heady resentment with just a _smidge_ of pepsquad polish. "I  _called_ to see if you were home," She says, mind not wandering from what kind  _deal_ Weevil and Logan could have made after Weevil's bike looked like it had picked a fight with the wrong wood chipper. "Which, apparently, you sort of are.  _What_ are you doing out here, Logan?"  
  
     "You know, just wanted to clear the house for daddy dearest." He almost laughs, it's  _almost_ funny to be in a situation this messed up, he figures. "You know how I hired you to follow Missy and expose her lecherous, daddy-issue-rife ways?" There's a beat of silence where Veronica gets a bad feeling, again. "I want to hire you to investigate my dad. Can you do that, Susie Sherlock?"


	7. Veronica Mars, Girl Detective

  
  
   “Logan…” She sighed, head tilted against her car window, hoping somehow he can see her glare from yards away.    
  
  “I didn’t ask for a lecture,  _ Ronnie _ , I just want to know. Can. You. Do. That.” His arms are folded across his chest in the car down the street, disturbed feeling all over him yet to leave his body. If Veronica Mars wouldn’t help him, somebody would. He could make somebody.   
  
   Veronica sighed into the phone again.    
  
  Aaron Echolls dating a teenager had capital i __ ick-factor, even when it wasn’t him she was  _ supposed _ to be concerned with. Her family had already gone after the Kanes, going after silver screen star Aaron Echolls wasn’t going to win her a popularity contest. And it didn’t seem like it would even get Logan off her back. Instead, she thinks about his mom, Lynn Echolls, who had always been nice to her, even for no reason. She sighs one more time.    
  
  “I’ll need his schedule. He’s filming now, right? I’ll need a pass on set. And Logan,” She considers for a moment. “We both know I could break and enter and survey your house, so maybe you can just save me some time and let me in to look around?”    
  
  His seconds of silence make her think maybe he’s already changed his mind, and they can go back to two weeks ago when he was giving her flat tires and snickering in Duncan’s ear when she walked by. Of course, the snickering hadn’t stopped.    
  
  “Fine. After Missy leaves, I’ll go in and let you in around back. If you tip my dad off-”   
  
  
 “Don’t insult me, thanks. You can get his schedule and a way I can get into his work?” It’s strange, letting Logan see so much of the world that only exists after his friendship, and she reminds herself that it’s okay to hold this back, even if she hopes it scares him a little bit.    
  
    “No problem. Apparently, he has some extracurriculars I don’t know too much about.Funny how they don’t come up at our family fireside chats.” He clears his throat. “But I’ll get you a datebook I think his assistant keeps for him. Poor schlep.”    
  
   Veronica hangs up her phone with a snap, satisfied with his answers and mad about his questions. It wasn’t like she had planned on dropping Aaron Echolls from her interest. But reporting to his son, reporting to Logan, took the wind out of what she hoped was still going to be somewhat of a light-commitment distraction. It’s already 11:15 PM, and she still has to snoop through the Echolls’ family home before her head hits the pillow. Even when he wasn’t torturing her, Logan Echolls was making her life hell. She’s pretty sure they have a geography quiz tomorrow in first period, and she’s pretty sure she won’t be remind him about it. 

  
    At 11:35 when Missy’s car backs out from the driveway at last, gross and reprehensible deed done, Veronica texts her dad to say she’ll be home late, but hopefully soon, and she silently thanks that no curfew rule. She doesn’t let herself wonder where Logan’s dad thinks he is tonight. Watching Logan leave the car he was in to stroll through his front door, all usual pomp and swagger, she waits a few more minutes, packing her messenger bag with the set of master keys, her taser, and her camera; all  _ just in case _ s.    
  
   Including the fact that Logan and Weevil, eachother’s fun-mirror-foil, apparently reached some sort of probably uneasy agreement, Veronica reminds herself that nothing about this case had been easy or convenient, and when she sees Logan’s back light come on, she knows this probably won’t be comfortable either.    
  
  “Veronica Mars, why what _ ever _ brings you here?” Logan’s dead eyes joke bitterly  as he lets her in the back door, noticing her eyes already raking over his house, about to rip his privacy to shreds.    
  
   “Are you  _ sure  _  about this?” She pulls out her camera, letting him know this is game-time; his hand’s in his hair and she’s sure he’s never thought about anything so seriously in his life, and gives him the minute.    
  
   “Yes. Yeah. Do your thing, Susie Sherlock.” Arms open wide, it's the legitimate invitation into his home full of apparently-tawdry-secrets and dirty laundry of both kinds.    
  
  “You already used that one.” Her lips are in a thin, straight line and she contemplates where to start. Phone records, hotel room charges, and internet history she could get at home. She really wants to see Aaron Echolls’ room, as goose-bump-inducing as that notion was; and she has a bad thought about how she could do that.    
  
  “It was good enough to merit seconds.” Logan smirks, sits at the bar’s high stool with his feet up, watching her calculate, and it’s just so jarring a difference to the last time she was here, he pretends it’s a different person in his memory, laughing with Lilly and getting tipsy. Instead, she’s here as his PI, because his dad’s banging his now ex-girlfriend, and maybe this’ll be the push that gets his mom to go for divorce.    
  
  “It really wasn’t.” She throws him a glare adding, “I remember why I usually work alone. The quiet just  _ soothes  _ me.” And she has a half-hope he’ll actually shut up and let her think. She begins to delve into his house. “Can I see your laundry room?”   
  
   This kind of easy access into a mark’s space, is nearly unprecedented and she knows she shouldn’t be enjoying this, and tells herself she isn’t. So they’re sneaking around the house from Logan’s dad, and she’s sure Logan can’t actually  _ work _ his washing machine, but she bites her tongue for that quip because he really looks like he’s going to be sick all over himself even without her help.  She takes pictures of the load in the machine, and reminds herself to talk to Weevil’s grandma, Letty Navarro, about excessive dirty sheets coming through the Echolls hampers.    
  
   “Kinda invasive, don’t you think?” He’s squirrely, and antsy, and she’s sorry for that; but if he wants this case done, really done, she’s going to go through every angle.    
  
   “Can you think of any place your parents hide anything…” She doesn’t want to use the word  _ scandalous _ , she doesn’t need him flying into that famous Echoll’s rage; Weevil’s decimated motorcycle comes to mind. “Sensitive? The smallest thing could help.”   
  
   He looks stunned for a few seconds, before easy feigned nonchalance rules the day again.   
  
   “If you tell me what you’re looking for, I could probably me more help.” He manages to grit through his teeth.    
  
   “Fine. You really want to help?” She’s still speaking in hushed tones, but she goes harsh. “Has your dad been showering a lot? Any dramatic changes in when he comes home or goes out? Any strange cars in the neighborhood you don’t recognize?”    
  
  The obvious ones she lets go unsaid; unaccounted earrings, lingerie, lipsticks…  The tick in his jaw unsettles her, before he rights it to a blank slate again, eyes darkened instead on her, which she could handle, she reasons.    
  
   “Yours is the only car I’ve noticed in the wrong zipcode. My dad’s a movie star, haven’t you heard? He keeps odd hours.” When he leads her back upstairs, he gives her a purposeful look, hoping for once in her life Veronica Mars could make his life easier and just shut up. She does, to his surprise, and even follows his lead when skipping the creaky step up from the laundry room back into his room. His room is sizable, but cluttered, and Veronica Mars, short-hair and hardened by her new life of scandal and Hardy Boys fascination doesn’t really jive with his decor in an easy way. “Do you think my dad’s cheating with other people?”   
  
    She’s proud he makes the effort to whisper, even creeping around his own house, harboring an exiled PI’s daughter to examine the family’s literal dirty laundry.    
  
   “Do you think your dad’s 'hanging out' with Missy for her  _ intellect? _ Cause, if not, then yeah, that’s what I’m thinking, Watson.” Her voice is Ice Queen, and she needs it to be right now. Not to mention, she’s exhausted. “I’ll start tailing your dad tomorrow, okay? Look…” She doesn’t want to ask him for money, not out of any misguided lingering friendship-feelings or anything, she just doesn’t usually get repeat customers so much and it feels strange, billing him twice. “I wasn’t kidding, I’ll do the work for free, but I might need money for expenses, and stuff.” Flicking her eyes down, she wonders if he considers gas an  _ expense _ or just something he buys, and she pretends not to be floored when he just hands her five hundred dollars from his back pocket.    
  
    “You thought about this? Five hundred is-”   
  
  
    “As much as I’ve got right now, Veronica, jeez you wanna take me to the cleaners in the smoldering wreckage of my family?” His eyes hit her roughly, and she doesn’t miss the way his hands ball up.    
  
   “ _ Too much _ , I was going to say. But good luck getting a reimbursement now. Let me out of here, I have work to do, apparently.” She contemplates telling her dad about Aaron Echolls sleeping with a highschool student, and she contemplates even more about telling him it’s her new case, the one that kept her out until…. 1 AM.    
  
   On the drive home she thinks about her next move. She’s still not completely enthused about the plan she’s been mulling over, and she really hates that she doesn’t have Lilly to talk with, or distract her. She really hates that she doesn’t have her mom. 


	8. Neptune's Hollywood Golden Boy

    She waits for Saturday before she stalks Aaron Echolls again. Digging up his credit history, fine, she could do that between classes. Phone logs were a little sketchier, apparently Mr. Echolls had up to three cell phones, she would have to talk to Logan about that. And internet info… She was put off enough by the number of times people in that house Google-d themselves, she didn’t have time to stomach the porn. The Lilly Kane murder trial interest was morbid, but she figured she could relate. Going back months, there were searches about Lilly. She might talk to Logan about that, too.    
  
  She makes sure her outfit is just this side of slutty, and when paparazzis ebb their way off the Echolls’ set trailer, Veronica knocks, ready to smile her way into a dirty old man’s ease and comfort. Oh, if her father could see her now, she thinks, even as Aaron answers the door, sunglasses over his face.    
  
   “Hi! Mr. Echolls, it’s me-”   
  
   “Veronica? It’s.. certainly been awhile hasn’t it? What can I do for you?” He peers down his sunglasses at her, and something in her unsettles. The overt charm, the willing-to-please movie star thousand-watted-smile. She’s glad she waited a few days to do this, this was going to take actual effort and concerted non-vomiting.    
  
    “Oh,  _ you remember.” _ She feigns embarrassment, letting her smile plump her cheeks at him. “Actually, I was wondering if I could interview you for the school newspaper. You’re the coolest, hottest alum Neptune could probably ever ask for- Interviewing you could really inspire me and some of the other students!” She peers up through her lashes, and his teeth catch his bottom lip. If she could find that innocuous, she promises she would try. She knows the version of herself he remembers, the one he’d recognize. As far as she is from that girl, from the pep squad Lilly Kane shadow, scared of the big leagues teenager, she remembers how much people used to like  _ that _ her. If her journalism teacher  _had_ assigned her an alumni interview, it probably would've been Aaron Echolls, and Veronica really thinks that fact counts for something. And hey, depending how the article goes, maybe she'll even really submit it.    
  
   “Of course, come in, come in. Have a seat. Can I get you anything? Spring water? Snack? Unfortunately I don’t have a whole lot of time-” He leans against the trailer’s sink and watches her sit on the couch.    
  
   “That’s okay I can be super quick! Just a couple of questions, you know, how you knew you wanted to get into acting, what you felt like was your big break, favorite ice cream flavor- something with  _ dirt _ I can bring back to class, you know?” Her smile is innocent, she plans it that way, and his eyes are sparkled over at his favorite topic of discussion- himself. Neptune's very own Hollywood golden-boy, she can't help but feel like the illusion's been shattered for her, and shakes her head.    
  
  He talks, all the wisdom and false modesty of a man trying to impress, and she jots his answers on her notepad so she doesn’t have to reveal the recorder in her bag. It’s not like she expects him to tell her he’s dating a sixteen year old, who’s also been dating his son, but she likes to have the audio, just in  _ case. _ Her eyes spot two wine glasses that tell him he probably had company this morning or was expecting company later, and she tucks that into her memory.    
  
  “Can I use your bathroom?” She interrupts cheerily, and he obliges, even as she’s calling him stupid in her head.    
  
  His trailer bathroom has a stash of barely-concealed pill bottles she snaps pictures of with the water running, and the showers wet, which could mean nothing at all, but it could be someting. She catches her own eyes in the bathroom mirror, noticing her eyebrows are getting a little wild-child, and thinks about how Lilly would’ve teased her into tweezing, and just smoothes them. When she’s sure she has everything Aaron’s willing to give her, she excuses herself out, getting his phone number for any follow ups. Curiosity piqued, before she’s even back to the LeBaron she’s trying to calculate which number he’s given her.    
  
   Stopping home to change, prep school cleavage won’t be necessary for at least the rest of her afternoon, she gets some quality Back Up time before heading to the office. She recognizes an ugly yellow XTerra offending the curb in front of the office, and Veronica can only pray someone else in Neptune has the same bad taste in cars.    
  
   “What, no love for your best client?” He calls out to her from the car, and she can at least be glad he didn’t go chat with her dad.    
  
   “Do you  _ know _ how often I hear that? Usually I’m on a pole though, I  _ guess _ .” Toothy smile flashing, she forces the saccharine drip back in her voice, “Yeah, I guess you do probably know, that Madison is just a  _ wealth _ of personal knowledge about me. She knows things even  _ I  _ don’t!” Her face changes, he watches, and if he cared he’d figure out why.    
  
   “You talked to dear old dad?” He ignores her goading and presses on; bile in his throat every time he thinks about it for more than a second.    
  
   “Oh yeah, I see where you get your humility. Must be in the genes.” If she’s going to make it out to the desert in any reasonable time, Veronica knows she has to leave soon. There’s a blonde that been’s spotted frequenting local bars and living out of her car, and Veronica is extremely interested in talking with her, like an itch she can’t wait to scratch. “Look, I have to track down a lead for another case, so…”   
  
  He’s half leaning out the car window, ready to beg her for her thoughts on  _ why _ his dad would-  _ do  _ this, and then she hustling up the stairs away from him.    
  
  “ _ Veronica! _ ” She snaps her head back to him, a second from impatiently tapping her foot. “My dad’s not going to be home tonight. I don’t know if you wanted another look around-”   
  
  “Sure. See you then. Bye, Logan.” She’s already halfway inside the building when he looks up and wiggles his fingers to wave at her, and he revs the Xterra  hard all the way home. 


	9. Veronica Mars Gets Fired

    He’s ten minutes early to first period geography, and Veronica Mars is nowhere to be seen. Not that Logan expected punctuality at this point. His fingernails are dug into the skin of his palms when she squeaks in right before the bell, forcing him to listen to fifty minutes about South American agriculture before he can get a word with her. Not that he’s sure what to say. He inspects the half-moons of his nails on his palms while he waits for the class to end, and he sucks his cheeks in at how apparently easy it is for her to ignore him for days.   
  
  Logan Echolls burning holes in the back of her head first thing on a Monday morning tells Veronica she in no way had enough coffee to drink this morning. She reminds herself to tell Wallace she told her dad she was with him this weekend, and when the bell dismisses the class she makes a run for it, straight to the girls’ bathroom where she dares Logan to follow, and of course he doesn't.    
  
   It’s that exact minute he realizes how much he hates her; waiting around for her all weekend, all first period, and now in between classes. The old Veronica Mars was sweet, obliging, charming. New Veronica Mars was a bitch to behold, and he was glad Neptune High Society had demoted her to hiding in bathrooms.    
  
    When he gives up and goes to class, she’s relieved. Only an idiot thinks she can delay the inevitable, Veronica tries not to remind herself, instead picturing a scenario where Logan Echolls really doesn’t ever speak to her again. It kind of works for her as far as peaceful paradise goes. The messages he left on her phone all weekend weren’t nagging at her at all; if she thought really hard about something else, she didn’t think of it at all. It's not like she'd forgotten about him; they'd spoken on the phone and her night had escalated past the point of return, past the point of stopping by to snoop on Aaron.    
  
   At lunchtime, the thought about who’s an idiot comes back with vengeance, when Logan’s standing within ten feet of  _ her  _ table, lost look on his face like he’s misplaced the genetic map he has to the 09er table.    
  
   “So what is it, Veronica? What did you find out? What were you doing all weekend?” The desperation in his voice stabs at her, even as she can’t feel sorry; not even a little.    
  
  “I… had another case, Logan. I’m sorry. There was some weird activity on your dad’s cell- do you know why he has three lines? And did you know he has like ten prescriptions?” If she focuses on his creepy dad, she won’t have to think about her own ghost parent, Lianne Mars, and suddenly the distractive allure of his plight comes back to her.    
  
  “You had another case? I told you my dad wasn’t home, you could’ve came and-” Logan notices Duncan watching them talk, even as he keeps his voice low and his face even. Weevil’s watching, too, and it’s another uncomfortable factor of Veronica Mars that she’d actually befriend that guy.    
  
  “I couldn’t come, Logan, I had to--   something else.” Eyebrows up at him, she hopes he’ll drop it, go back to talking about his dad’s different cell numbers and what he’s taking pills for.    
  
  “You had to  _ something else _ ?” And because this is reality, Veronica Mars knows luck or hope or fairies just aren’t on her side, and of course he doesn’t drop this. Logan’s mouth’s curved into a mean little smile and he’s looking down on her, now. Or maybe still. “What am I  _ paying you for _ if you had to  _ something else _ ?” The vicious in his voice is loud and clear, and any ceasefire Veronica had imagined over the last couple weeks dissipates into thin mountain air.    
  
   “You mean why didn’t I come running when you called?” She readies herself for more nastiness. Seven messages on her phone and all he had to say was this, she fights not to roll her eyes.    
  
    He’d come to her for help, he thinks, and that’d been his mistake. Mars Family PI-work just wasn’t to be trusted, is the angry conclusion he comes to.    
  
   “Again, I say,  _ what am I paying you for _ , if not that?” There are rumors of a taser, and that’s why he swallows other cracks his furious brain comes up with. If she didn’t  _ understand _ how important this was… how devastating- then she couldn’t really help him, could she?   
  
   Lips tight, Veronica smooths blonde hair behind her ears and stares straight into his face. Logan’s leaning down on the table, into her space in a way even he doesn’t like, and he especially doesn’t like the way she looks up at him- it’s all New Veronica. When she moves it’s quick, a flash of green from her back pocket thrown bouncing off his chest towards the courtyard’s middle, and he’s pouting before he knows it when he picks up the cash.    
  
   “Consider me fired.” She goes back to staring ahead, setting her face to stone and resolving everything and nothing.    
  
     There’s a stir in the courtyard, where Logan feels everyone’s eyes on him, Duncan’s, Weevil’s, even Missy might’ve looked up, and he folds the five hundred bills into his back pocket and turns his back to her.    
  
     Throwing Dick Casablancas a head nod, he knows Veronica can hear him say, “Who knew? Apparently I can’t afford Neptune’s cheapest slut. Well, second cheapest, I guess. There’s still the elusive Mommy Mars.”    
  
    When he looks back to her table, it’s empty, and among the conflict there’s still something grinning in him; a sense of victory that she left, she’s gone, a non-reminder.    
  
  At school, Veronica had a deal with herself. After last year, at Shelley’s, the rape, the school’s meanness after everything- she’d been crying in the girls’ bathroom when she decided that never again was she going to hide, or cry, over something an arrogant, cruel, 09er said to her. But taking off in her car, blowing off school in the middle of the day, she doesn’t cry at all, and she feels like she keeps that deal. 


	10. Chapter 10

     Veronica can practically hear her driver's ed teacher screaming in her ear as she swings a wide u-turn and heads back to school. She puts her car right back into the spot it was in, and it's still lunch for her- a few minutes of hell left- and sitting back at her table, she watches Wallace do his math homework and eats a fruit cup and the whole thing feels much more Veronica Mars to her than running.   
  
     She takes her geometry test, a suck cherry on top of her suck sundae, and is almost ready to refocus on her mom. Her mom. Finding her mom. She'd put about a thousand miles on the LeBaron looking for her mom, and things felt weird between her and her dad now, too. She hadn't seen him all weekend, at least her parents had that in common, and when she got home from school Back Up was whining for a walk.   
  
    "So. Tell me about this deal." She's on the beach with Back Up, her back to the parking lot, and for a few brief seconds it's just a girl, her dog, and the ocean. That's  _before_ she hears a motorcycle pull up and Spanish muttering.   
  
    "We settled it, that's all." Weevil's at her side, but at a distance; beloved attack pooch at her feet and all.   
  
     "Yeah..." She sighed. Do you even  _listen_ to the rumors about me? What part of 'crazy bitch?' sounds like 'we settled it' is gonna work for me?" She offers him a light smile, pointedly ignoring the face he's shooting at her. Pointedly ignoring; she felt like she'd been doing that a lot, lately.   
  
     Unhooking the leash from Back Up's collar, Veronica a loosed a tennis ball and saw Weevil loosen up as Back Up bounded away.   
  
    "What part of that show in the courtyard today still makes this your business, V." Arms folded across his chest, he watched her face- only marked by the way it didn't change. She kept her eyes on Back Up, who'd found seagulls to chase, and didn't concentrate her glare on Weevil; much to his relief.   
  
    "Inquiring minds and all. You wanna know what I think?" Pausing for effort, she smiled. "Logan trashed your bike. You don't wanna end up getting the chair for killing a gnat of an 09er, but since you didn't just sidle up on a Schwinn with Chardo in the basket, safe to say your bike's fixed, right? And we all know Logan was at school today..." She rolled her eyes. "But Logan  _embarrassed_ you, right? I mean, hey, come on. So Logan pays for your new sweet ride-" She gestured towards the motorcycle. "And takes some...  _other_ merchandise off your hands."   
  
    Now it was Weevil's turn to roll his eyes, hands in his jacket pockets.   
  
    "Silver sedan... tinted windows... shady plates; ringing any bells for you?" She kept prompting, and waited. If she got a shrug out of him, she knew she had him on the ropes.   
  
   He shrugged.   
  
   "You ran the guy's plates?" Weevil laughed, shaking his head. "You got issues, you know that? Yeah, my uncle sold him some  _other_ merchandise, okay? Echolls said he needed something low profile, do I look like a guy who asks a lot of questions to you?"   
      
    "You look like a guy who could  _start."_ Veronica flashed him the sweetest smile in her arsenal.   
  
    "Why all the interest? We all really did see what happened today. I noticed you came back." He started making his way back to his bike, still facing her. "Kinda like the funny syphilis that way, you know, V?"  
  
     _Ah, that Veronica Mars,_ she thinks to herself,  _such a hit with the fellas._    
  
     "Don't you forget it!" Finger guns blazing, she watched him pull away. It really was a nice bike. Probably cost Logan a fortune.   
  
     That's enough to satisfy her for now, and she plays fetch with Back Up a little while longer, until the sun starts to go down.   
  
     Her dad's home when she gets in, she smells no food to her discontentment, and his eyes are glued to the TV.   
  
     "Honey- do you know a Neptune student, Missy Blake?" He still hasn't taken his eyes off the program, and now she's at least distracted from the rumbling in her stomach.   
  
      " _Oh boy, do_ _I_!" False pep wasn't enough to voice her frustration with Missy Blake.   
  
      Her dad didn't laugh or acknowledge the intended dig, and Veronica sighed, "What is it?"  
  
     "Missy's gone missing." Keith looked up at her, and Veronica's head reeled. 


	11. What's the Story with Missing Missy?

     "In the case of local missing teen, Missy Blake, investigators haven't been able to comment whether or not this is related to last year's Lilly Kane murder case. Acting sheriff, Don Lamb, has gone on record to say that Neptune does not have a serial killer killing our teenage daughters, but the community's still fearful a predator is on the loose. Not to mention, the similarities of circumstance in the girls' personal lives." A news reporter on channel 2 sets up a clip of Logan Echolls on a red carpet with his parents, implication clear. "At this time, the sheriff's office is hoping for the community's full cooperation, and if anyone has any pertinent information, sees anything suspect, or knows anything that could be related, we urge you to call 1-800-TIP-LINE. That's all for us tonight, from Neptune News Network. Signing off, Shelley Holbrook."  
  
     The program changes, to another news session of Neptune's own 'who done it' mystery, and Veronica groans before clicking it off and sinking into the couch. It'd been three days of 24-hour news coverage into Missy Blake, Neptune's new sweetheart, and mixed feelings on Missy aside, the whole thing definitely did bring back the initial anxiety and shock of Lilly's murder- especially with Keith having Veronica on near-lockdown again. Everyone in the town feared the same thing, a body of a teenage girl being discovered everywhere they looked-   
  
    They'd been showing Missy's parents, crying, tearful, pleading with Missy to come home or call or smoke signal- anything to prove signs of life; they were adamant Missy would never leave on her own, and Veronica bought that. The circumstances of Missy's disappearance didn't puzzle out to a girl blowing off school for Tijuana. Her car had been found abandoned with her blood in it, not to mention her purse, and drag marks at the scene were definite signs of foul play. Of course, the media wasn't reporting that just yet. Active investigations with no actionable information- Veronica new why that wasn't on the 5 o clock news already. But the rumor mill of a Neptune serial killer was already gaining ground. She'd gotten the police report of Missy's car, in a not totally ethically pure capacity- but the chaos of the Sheriff's department in the midst of a high profile, high stakes investigation was ripe for the plucking of information. Was it Veronica's fault she was just a really good plucker?   
  
   She tapped her fingertips on the end of her laptop- wondering which questions where the right ones to ask.   
  
   The odds of this case remaining a missing persons for very long, weren't likely. She'd been reported missing on Monday night, and her car had been found before dawn Tuesday morning. By 5 o clock Friday, Veronica knew the statistical math of missing persons cases... and it didn't work out in Missy's favor. There hadn't been  _much_ blood in the car- just a few streaks and splatters in the drivers' seat of the miata- the  _best_ case scenario would probably be car-jacking gone wrong, but Veronica didn't consider that likely. The clip of the Echolls family on the premiere carpet rolled in her mind, and she  _really_ wanted to ignore the bad feeling in her stomach about it. She opened a file on her computer, titling it  _Missy Blake Missing Persons Case_ , and decided to let optimism leave it titled that for now.   
  
   Off the bat, Veronica created  _Eli Navarro,_   _Logan Echolls_ , and  _Aaron Echolls_ sub-files. She added a second tier  _Lynn Echolls_ file; if Logan had told Lynn about Missy... maybe there was something there. 

    She wondered, seemingly for the millionth time, how much of the past couple weeks she should share with her dad without worrying him. Out of curiosity, she checked Logan's cell records for the past few days, starting with the week before with the call from Missy she'd listened in on first hand. Scanning down the list of calls, Missy's number only appeared once more after that- the second night Veronica followed Missy to the Echolls'. 8 second duration probably meant Logan had ignored the call, and got in Weevil's uncle's car to watch what happened next. 

     She opened new files for Aaron's cell numbers- she had never pinned down why he had so many; aside from all the extra marital calling, of course- and Veronica had a thought that made her groan. If Lynn was a suspect on the grounds of a scorned woman or romantic rival, all Aaron's other less-than-love-interests fell under that category, too. 

    And then there was the question she'd been purposefully avoiding; what, if anything, did this have to do with Lilly? No one in the Kane family would have reason to really know Missy, aside from Duncan, as Logan's friend. 

    It's 2 am before she realizes her back's cramping, and shuts the laptop half-wishing she could just pop! close her brain. 

    The number Aaron had given slightly-sluttier-Old-Veronica was the same one he used to call Missy, whatever creepy thing that meant. The night of Missy's disappearance, there's a 22 second phone call from a number she can't trace that doesn't exactly jive with a car-jacking theory. 

    At 8:33 pm, someone called Missy luring her out; at 12:05 her parents call the police when they can't find her and she can't be reached, and at 4:42 am, her bloody car is found abandoned, by the side of the road near an entrance to the PCH. 

    Climbing into bed is relieving, momentarily, and she sleeps as restfully as she can, figuring a late Saturday morning sleep in won't kill anyone. 

     But morning does come, and she's at the kitchen table inspecting the pictures she'd copied from the police file- she catches a scratch of silver paint on Missy's rear bumper- 

     "Where did you get that?" Her dad disrupts her thoughts on the matter, staring blankly at the pictures sprawled on the kitchenette's table. 

     Sighing, Veronica can recognize careless when she's been it, and she tucks the pictures back into the file and starts to pour her dad coffee. 

     Apparently she'd slept more restfully than she thought, if she hadn't heard her dad come in last night and hadn't thought to check for him this morning.

    "Lamb needs some help on this one, Dad. Okay, he's not looking in the right place. I know, you're surprised, please try and can your shock." Settling back into her chair, and turning her attention back to her cornflakes, she wonders if this is the minute to tell-all about Missy Blake. 

     "And in your ever-charitable nature, you've tirelessly called in to the case's tip line, spilling your intelligent little guts on the matter?" Keith accepted the coffee, worry not gone from his face. 

   She pouted, comically. 

   "My guts are not little, thank you. I've got the guts of ten men." Flexing a muscle to prove her point, she dropped her bowl into the sink and scooped up her bootlegged case file. 

   "Veronica, I do not want you near this case. I don't even want you in the same country as this case. Find a whole other planet, altogether, okay?" Keith breathed.

   "Mars on Mars? Kind of has that kitschy ring, doesn't it?" 


	12. A Guiding Hand

     "Explain to me how Missy's car has a grey scratch like it's been hit by something grey and  _low profile._ " Arms folded, even standing while he was sitting Veronica wasn't much taller than Logan. It was the height, she thought; always made people less afraid of her. If only her parents had given her taller genes.   
  
     Monday morning came before Veronica had made heads or tails of  _Missy Blake Missing Persons-_ or her photography assignment for journalism. She still had seven periods before then, she reminded herself, and before geography started she wanted to focus on Logan.  
  
    For his part, Logan looked a messier version of himself- hair barely gelled into passive-and-uncaring Logan Echolls chic.   
  
    "Wow, not even a full week and you've already flown into the wild accusations. Should I be expecting your Daddy to arrest me any minute- oh,  _wait._ " He slapped himself on the forehead, mocking shame. Veronica was surprised he could even mock it.   
  
     "I need to look at your present from Weevil." Relenting only to the bell, she settled at her desk for another rousing session of world geography, thoughts still wholly occupied about Missy.   
  
     A week missing was a bad benchmark for law enforcement. The press was all over the sheriff's office to release information, and there were even whispers of the FBI coming to little ole Neptune for some good old fashioned Big Brother overseeing. Lamb would  _love_ that, Veronica could've smirked.   
  
    "Veronica Mars? Veronica, you've been called to the guidance counselor." Mrs. Hecht's voice delivered grave news.   
  
     _Ugh. _ Grief counseling and extra rounds of guidance had been going around all week; Veronica thought she was going to be  _just_ lucky enough to get skipped this time around, especially when you counted all the hours she'd been mandated last year.   
  
    Office still exactly the same shade of boring, unoffensive beige; there was something threatening in the still silence when you first sat down. It was like Schrodinger's guidance session. You were going to talk about everything, or nothing, but probably not both.   
  
    "How have you been dealing with Missy's disappearance? Surely this has to bring up feelings like after Lilly's death?" Ms. James went right in. Maybe that cat was alive.   
  
      _Electric prod to that emotional cattle, sure,_ Veronica thought.   
  
     "I actually didn't know Missy that well. Don't. Don't know her that well." Not that she wanted to, but it at least sounded like an out to her.   
  
     "It says in your file you were disciplined last week involving an altercation over Missy." Eyes never leaving the page, Ms. James didn't exactly ask the question, but left Veronica to explain.  
  
     "Mmm... not really  _involved_ , involved- I was standing  _by_ the altercation. I was a by-stander." Veronica couldn't believe she actually wanted to go back to forty minutes about Himalayan mountains. Or perhaps the actual Himalayan mountains.   
  
     "There's nothing bothering you about her disappearance at all?"   
  
      "I mean... she's probably with some boyfriend in Tijuana, right? Or upstate skiing or something. Had a fight with her parents and she'll be back when she's bored." Veronica didn't know what had happened to Missy, but she was pretty sure she wasn't upstate skiing, even as she tried to convince Ms. James that was what she thought.   
  
     "Veronica, I remember how Lilly's death and that investigation affected you. Do you remember being in this office those couple of months?"   
  
      Inspecting the same discolored stain of carpet as she had then, Veronica remembered with perfect clarity every time she had been in this office.   
  
     "Of course I remember." She sighed. "I was upset."  
  
      "You were angry." Ms. James waited.   
  
     "I still am." Shrugging, Veronica figured that was probably about as much truth as she was going to disclose here. She didn't dislike Ms. James, she just hadn't really disclosed too much truth aside from with Wallace in... well, since Lilly's death, anyway. And Veronica hadn't had many secrets  _before_ Lilly's death worth telling.   
  
     "Let's talk about that, then." Ms. James watched Veronica shift in her seat.   
  
     "How does that help Missy?" Veronica questioned, hoping the bell would just ring any minute.   
  
     "Do you think you have to help Missy? You said yourself, you two weren't very close."  
  
       _Of course not_ , Veronica wanted to start. But, she couldn't help thinking she'd been following Missy just days before her disappearance. If it'd happened a few days earlier, she might've been their to help.   
  
     "Do you think you have to help Lilly?" The counselor spoke again, trying to prompt Veronica into a response; a focused look had come over her face, she just wasn't focusing on their conversation.   
  
      In her mind's eye, Veronica could see Lilly, could see herself, in pep squad outfits, working the car wash. It'd been the perfect California day, and they'd been perfect California teenage girls. To boot, Veronica remembered Lilly's whispered, ' _I've got a secret'_ and how she took it to the grave.   
  
      "Lilly's dead." Was all Veronica shared, but she had an idea about finding Missy. Maybe she had other secrets, too. Veronica had an idea where to start looking for them.   
  
      The bell rung, and a sympathetic wave to Ms. James' disappointed face was all she managed. 


	13. Girl's Got Gossip

     Most girls' shameful highschool moments revolved around alcohol, or jealousy, and Veronica had her share of those, sure. But sometimes, Veronica Mars' shameful moments looked like watching Wallace's basketball game with headphones on, listening to the audio transmitter she put in the girls' bathroom.   
    
     Other than who's hair was totally  _hot_ , and who's hair was totally  _not_ , Veronica's shame had been fruitless. Not even one little grape of shame-worthy information.  
  
     She smiled and hooted, watching Wallace score a three-pointer, his first of the game, and noticed most of the crowd was yelling with her.   
  
     So fine, this wasn't exactly her scene anymore. Did that mean she couldn't still tourist in the land of school pride? It wasn't even school pride- it was... Wallace-pride.   
  
     The other team, a school Veronica hadn't even heard of, scored again, tying it up, and she blinked for a minute, figuring this was what most kids her age were biting their nails about. This, homecoming. Blah. Some people were still talking about Missy, though, and she could only hope to hear something useful.   
  
     Missy's friends were the upper-deck of 09-ers. People who used to associate with Veronica, and currently saw through her except to mock her. She could pretty much count on them not speaking to her about anything critical. Really, when she thought about it, hadn't they pushed her to bugging them?  
  
    Her shame quenched further by hearing her own name in her headphones. Two girls discussing her presence at the game. She sighed. If she wanted to hear about herself she would've just read the stalls.  
  
    The crowd erupted for Wallace again, and he even spared Veronica a wave on his glance to adoring fans. Laughing, she could only predict she'd never hear the end of this. If they started to cheer his name she was  _done_ for.   
  
    Tuning back in to the bathroom chatter, Veronica heard making out and rolled her eyes at the squelching. If she started to hear zippers, she was going in there to break it up. Veronica could only hope this wasn't what she sounded like when she kissed. Granted, there hadn't been much kissing, lately. She didn't let her mind turn to Duncan.   
  
    The other team was pulling ahead, despite Wallace's best efforts. 84-79, the Buccaneers, when the buzzer rang to end the third quarter. Shooting him her best encouraging smile, she eased off the bleachers during the break, wading out into the hall, where she heard Missy's name being whispered about- not from the transmitter.   
  
    " _I_ heard she started doing coke with PCH-ers, and OD-ed so they had to cover it up." Veronica stopped in her tracks, tucking herself behind a row of lockers leading into the hall.   
  
     "That's so messed  _up_ , Madison." Veronica couldn't pin down the voice, but it was more amused than truly reproachful. "Me and Missy used to be really good friends in middle school, I'm sure she would never do coke. Her _dad's_ the one with the problem, you know. I actually thought we were getting kind of close again; she'd been texting me and calling me again. Besides, everyone knows Missy only used boys."  
  
     Missy's dad had a drug problem? The upper crust of 09-er-dom certainly had it's underbelly.  
  
    "Yeah, like poor Logan."  _Aww, poor Logan_ , Veronica couldn't help but think sarcastically. She heard Madison sigh, "Maybe  _he_ could use some pep squad cheering up." The girls giggled and Veronica feigned a gag, if only for herself.   
  
     "Are you crazy? People are saying he snapped and killed her like he killed that kid Weevil's bike. Not to mention  _Lilly Kane._ " The girl seemed to  _try_ to whisper, and Veronica heard a locker closing.   
  
     Other people thought Logan might've  _snapped_? His cool icy cool chat with her told Veronica that at least no one had suggested he'd killed Missy  _or_ Lilly to his face.   
  
    "Well. They were skanks, anyway." That was Madison, dismissive as ever. "I was only ever nice to Lilly because I had to be, and you know Missy tried instant messaging Dick?" Madison scoffed, sounding repulsed; finally something Veronica and Madison had in common.   
  
     Hearing them come closer, Veronica charged out and crashed straight into Madison's (And Missy's) friend Harmony.   
  
     "Watch it! What're you even doing here don't you have a lap to be on someplace." Madison choked back a laugh and kept walking, Harmony mostly just kept her head down.   
  
     That definitely didn't make Veronica sorrier for snatching Harmony's cell phone during the bump.   
  
     Collecting her bug from the bathroom, she heard the school's fight song playing and sent Wallace a conciliatory skipping-out text. Going straight to her dad's office- her desk, loyal, dependable lovable... light blinking on the answering machine for her like an invitation. Her dad was with a client with the door closed, and she used the opportunity to tidy her desk and dig through Harmony's phone.   
  
     Sometimes Veronica Mars' most shameful moments looked like that, too.   
  
    


	14. The Twilight Zone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the prodigal jackass returns.... with an offer

     "You realize, if anyone finds out you have this, I'm a dead man." Disclaimer and reminder spit out, Wallace smiled and opened his jacket flasher-style, revealing a manila envelope that made Veronica's eyes sparkle in the way that scared him.   
  
     She put her arm around his shoulder and swiped the file.   
  
     "Clemmons wouldn't let them  _kill_ you- you'll just be expelled or something  _worse_ like they won't let you go to prom. But think of the  _legacy_ factor, here. Wallace Fennell, expelled for grand theft file-o. Pretty legendary if you're asking me." Walking to their table, her table turned theirs, Veronica could kind of get used to this. A good friend, new information. What else could a girl need?  
  
    "You're right, I wasn't thinking of it that way." He made a face at her. "I'm sure my mom'll be really proud of a son who got expelled for a high school  _legacy factor_."   
  
    "Nonsense, your mother would be proud that you gave everything up in the name of friendship for that sweet Mars girl." Her eyes finally scanned Missy's permanent record- her grades were unimpressive, definitely no Ivy's in Missy's future- a few detentions for her attitude and lateness. Nothing extraordinarily helpful or suspicious, like every other rock Veronica unturned in this case-   
  
     Wallace tapped her shoulder, causing her to snap Missy's file closed on instinct, and look up straight at Logan. Standing there, hands in his pockets, apparently waiting for her attention.   
  
     "So you know that utter contempt and raging detest you have for me?" Logan smiled, crooked and sweet. "I need you to use that."  
  
     "I'm listening," was all she offered him.   
  
     "I'm out of here," Wallace grabbed his lunch. Since befriending Veronica Mars, Wallace could recognize when his day was about to get a giant headache bomb dropped right on top of it. He was about to ask Veronica if she'd be okay with Logan alone, but the look on her face made him feel like he should've asked Logan instead. You know, if he didn't absolutely hate the guy.   
  
     Veronica smiled at Wallace, saluting him off to the basketball team's table.   
  
    Fingertips on the table, Logan sat in Wallace's seat and Veronica entered the twilight zone.   
  
    "So this contempt, it's great, yes?" Logan asked, grinning at her.   
  
    "Let's just assume it's the biggest you've ever seen and move on, Logan." God, even when he wasn't being infuriating he was infuriating.   
  
    "You wanna sniff my panty drawer and know I didn't kill anyone?" His voice was low with saccharine sweet anger Veronica could at least relate to. She'd heard first hand some of the things people were conjecturing in the halls of Neptune High about him. His space in the 09-er sphere would hold up after all, as Duncan Kane's right hand and Aaron Echolls' son, that had clout, but people whispering you were a murderer had to at least make your cornflakes soggy, Veronica figured.   
  
     "Okay, now circle back to the detesting. Cause clearing you of-" Veronica didn't want to say murder. Whether they were talking about Missy or Lilly she really, really didn't want to say murder. " _Suspicion_. Sounds like me doing you a favor."   
  
     She considered doing it anyway, no matter how it sounded. Or at least to tell him she'd do it. But this time he was going to have to squirm for her. Finding Missy, even putting Lilly's killer away, was going to entail investigating Logan. Whether she wanted his cooperation or not, it would be easier than bump-and-grabbing all of his possessions and breaking and entering into the Echolls' house. And there was still Aaron's ick factor to look into.   
  
     "Do you think I did it?" He asked, and he tried to casually concentrate on her face. Old Veronica, his friend, might've patted his shoulder, offered him a warm smile, and said 'of course not.' New Veronica stared at the table until she fixed her considerate glare on him.   
  
     "I don't think it's likely you did anything to Missy." It wasn't much, but it was something. Her mouth tight, Logan breathed relief and Veronica felt herself exhale a little, too.   
  
     Crimes of passion normally occur at ignition moments. Veronica knew what ignition moments looked like.  _Seeing your girlfriend kissing your dad_ , for example. For that ignition moment, Logan had been doubled over dry heaving in his family home's bushes.   
  
     "I don't think it's likely you did anything to Missy," Veronica started again, her face hot with him looking at her like that. "But I think it's a possibility. And apparently so does half of Neptune." She took a cursory glance around the courtyard, and saw some stray eyes on them. Granted, some of that was probably just Logan drawing coos over where he was sitting. But some of these people thought he was an unhinged murdered; she'd heard it straight from the horses mouth itself, Madison Sinclair.   
  
    "Aha. And  _noses_." Logan put a finger on the tip of his nose, temporary relief replaced by something he could at least count on. New Veronica Mars. "You hate me. You hate my guts. Look at your face right now, _Ronnie_ , you probably hate that I'm still even sitting here." He leaned in closer to her face, his elbows on the table. "And that's how you help me prove I didn't do anything."  
  
    He got up from the table and started walking away. That didn't  _look_ like squirming to Veronica. She scrambled her bag together and took off after him.   
     
     "Just so we're clear; I'm investigating you in the the disappearance of Missy Blake."  _And the murder of Lilly Kane,_ Veronica kept to herself. "What if I find something you don't like?" She followed him, just catching up by the time he stopped suddenly and turned back to her.   
  
     "Like, my dear old dad screwing my girlfriend?" Smiling, Logan whispered down to her, so close she could feel his hot breath on her cheeks. "Let's just assume this is going to be uncomfortable, shall we?"  
  
     He'd resigned himself to that beforehand. If he hadn't, he wouldn't have talked to her in the first place. Despite what she said, that she didn't  _think_ he did it, he could assume part of her was unsure, part of her probably even wanted him to be the villain. But if letting the Veronica Mars investigative crack team pry into his private life would make this whole thing go away; maybe it'd be worth a little discomfort.   
  
     "If you lie to me-" Veronica started, already backing away from him.   
  
     "I won't." Hands back in his pockets and his throat dry, he meant it. Face all open and honest, Veronica remembered her friend Logan; Lilly's boyfriend, Duncan's best friend, one of her close friends in another life.   
  
     "If you lie to me, I'll  _bury you._ " She committed herself to that.   
  
     "I'll buy you a shovel, just in case, huh?" He brushed her shoulder walking away from her; an instinct of gratitude and softness, half just to see her face as he left her there.   
  
     Just like that, Veronica Mars' time in the twilight zone was over. 


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a plan in motion and uneasy alliances.
> 
> warnings for canon-typical allusions to Veronica's pre-series rape

     Keith walked into Mars Investigations, ready to be met with the world's best daughter and world's cheapest cup of coffee. She didn't usually beat him to the office on Saturday mornings, and truthfully he was a little worried about a trend where his seventeen year old daughter was putting in obscene amounts of overtime, and how many hours they'd been spending apart. But that concern increased tenfold when he was met with Eli Navarro, known PCH-er, sitting next to his daughter on their lobby-room couch.

 

   "Dad," The world's best daughter smiled with a caught-in-the-cookie-jar twist on her face.

 

    "Sheriff." Weevil nodded his head noncommitally. "I needed Veronica's help with a math thing."

 

    Noticing the pointed lack of math books on the coffee table, Keith took his cheap coffee into his office and Veronica smiled him all the way in, both knowing this was going to come up again.

 

    "Remind me why I'm here." Weevil glared and turned back to Veronica.

 

    "Because you hate Lamb as much as I do and you wanna ruin his day? And you wanna know where Missy is?" It was thin, but Veronica hoped that'd be enough for Weevil for now. She hadn't exactly crossed him off her list of _possibilities_ \- Missy's car _had_ been found closer to Weevil's than anything that made sense- and but she didn't have to trust him to ask him for a favor. It was the beauty of their relationship, she marveled.

 

    "Right. And him questioning _me_ ruins his day how?" Weevil hadn't stopped glaring. He wasn't even sure that had any affect on her. It made Fitzpatricks run but a five foot two PI-junior didn't blink. Why did he like her again? Oh yeah, that was why he liked her.

 

    " _W_ _ell_. You didn't take Missy, right?" Veronica tallied his exasperated expression with her as denial enough for now. _"So_ , help me waste his time. And steal from him." She added, keeping her voice low just in case her dad was listening. The incompetency of the Sheriff's office was always a square on the board to be capitalized on, she wasn't about to let that one go.

 

    "I swear it's the eyelashes. You look at me all freaky when you want something, V." Getting up to leave, he fought a grumble about being in this office way too long just to help her out. And she'd even made him get up early on a Saturday.

 

    "I've heard it be referred to as pixie spy magic, if that makes you feel better. It's what makes me so hard to say no to." She winked slow, confident he was on board at least with what he knew of the plan.

 

    "Fine. This is me, not saying no. When I need something-" Weevil started.

 

    "You got it, _vato_ . I promise to even keep my questions to a _lesser_ multiple of ten." She made a crossing motion across her heart, and despite his lack of faith in that notion, he shrugged.

 

    "See ya, V." Rolling his eyes, fighting a smile, Weevil left, vowing to be as big a pain in Lamb's ass as he could; damn Veronica Mars.

 

    "Dad," Veronica gathered her stuff calling into his office. "I'm going out for a case- I'll see you at home later. Your messages are on my desk and your lunch's in the fridge. There's two checks to deposit and if Mrs.Lincoln doesn't come in to pay you today I'm tasering her, you can't stop me." Before her dad had a chance to stop her and ask about Weevil's tutoring session, Veronica took off out of the office and made her way to Logan's.

  
  


    "Are you _sure_ about this, Veronica?" Logan didn't _look_ sure, but Veronica was grinning, arms folded, when they walked into the sheriff's station. She fixed her smile on him in reply, and then turned to Inga; a Mars loyalist who'd ultimately wanted to keep her job.

 

    "We'd like to see Sheriff Lamb." She stayed sweet and cordial and Old Veronica; using the word _sheriff_ all liberally and _everything_. "It's about the Missy Blake case," she finished, lowering her voice and exaggeratedly nodding to Logan.

 

    "It's good to see you, Veronica." Inga nodded, and Veronica could only guess she was remembering the last time she was asking to see Lamb. After Keith was ousted, things had been tense between the department and the family, like with the community. After Veronica's rape, the relationship, shockingly, didn't improve. The Sheriff's office today had it's now-usual bustle of an FBI involved missing persons case. But everyone in the office had tasks at hand, everyone doing something, everyone occupied. That would come in handy. Next to her, Logan was leaning on the desk, using his body to shield a laser pointer from Inga's view. So he actually _could_ take instructions, Veronica smarted, confidence growing every second.

 

   Inga's computer blared a series of beeps behind her for a minute, with a perplexed Inga and office staffer attending to it. Saving a small, private smile for Logan, Veronica quirked her eyebrow.

 

   "Oh is that pesky camera system acting up again? My dad used to come home complaining _all_  the time." Veronica peeked over the screen, flashing her best Old Veronica smile. "Yeah he used to have this problem with over active sensors _all_ the time. It just takes about ten minutes for a system wide reboot to go into effect and that beep will be gone, no problem. We'll just... go wait for the Sheriff if that's okay."

 

   Grabbing Logan by the elbow, she pulled him into Lamb's empty office, leaving him to smile graciously at Inga behind her back, even with dread settling in his chest. Logan fiddled with Lamb's knick-knacks, putting everything he could upside down, keeping on eye on Veronica picking the desk drawer's lock. Her eyebrows jumped when the drawer opened, and she pulled a ring of keys from it, smiling at him; authentically smiling, not the false face she'd shown Inga.

 

   "Remember the payoff." Veronica took the seat next to Logan, keys in her bag. "Remember what we get out of this." In a show of solidarity she was sure he didn't deserve, she flipped another knick knack upside down, without looking at him.

 

   "My friends will only think I _might've_ killed my girlfriend? Oh, goody, what'll I ask Santa for next year." He crossed his fingers across his lap, still tapping them, and Veronica was willing to bet Lamb was making them wait on purpose.  That had already paid off for her, keys tucked in her bag were a stark reminder. And the cameras would be off for at least a couple more minutes in the station. Things were  _happening_ in this case.

 

   "Here to confess?" Lamb strode in eventually, high horse apparently not brought down by baffling incompetence, which made Veronica continually wonder.

 

   "I really am. I confess, you're an unmitigated jackass." Veronica leaned back on her chair, and this could've been fun if about ten variables just... varied. Logan's face was colorless, but he could appreciate mocking the Sheriff. Pesky authority complex, and all. 

 

   "Ms. Mars, you're looking awfully different from the last time you were in this office, no? Let's hope I can help as much as I did then." Seated now, Lamb looked hard at Veronica, and she was almost impressed by how small a person could be.

 

    Logan looked to Veronica, watching hate play on her features and knew whatever _raging detest_ she harbored for him were small potatoes compared what showed in her face at Don Lamb. Unsure if whether to be insulted or flattered by that sentiment, Logan could only figure that made her a bigger pain in Lamb's ass. Which was currently good for him. 

 

    "Ah. Must be all those trips to the _wizard_ you don't recognize on me. And I have no doubt your services will certainly be... helpful." Cold cheerfulness returned to her face, after a year of Logan Echolls' taunting, and general exile, if Don Lamb was expecting to rile her now she could only hope to sorely disappoint him. If Logan was confused about the Veronica-and-Lamb historical chronicles, Veronica could only hope they brushed right past them.

  
   “If we could hurry this up….” Lamb pointed at his watch.  
  
    Veronica _tsked_ looking to Logan.  
  
   “He’s just got all these reporters to evade, and missing girls to not find...Logan, we really should’ve picked a much better time when Lamb’s schedule wasn’t so _jammed_. Good thing we’re here to do him a favor.” Logan’s expressed got lighter just watching her face try to transition into a smile at Lamb.  
  
    “I don’t know where Missy is,” Logan started.  
  
    “You might wanna grab a pen, sheriff. A tape recorder, maybe? I can lend you one if you _want_. Getting the informal interview with a missing person’s ex boyfriend… prime stuff, chop chop.” The p's of her _chops_ popping, she raised her eyebrows at Logan and he was fighting a smile finally. Uncomfortable still, fidgety still, wanting to run still, but fighting a smile.  
  
    Writing utensil and pad procured, Lamb stared across the desk with his feet still up.  
  
   “I’ll ask the questions, thanks, _V._ ” Lamb insisted, and Veronica shrugged and leaned back further in her chair, betting on Logan in full.  
  
    “Did you abduct Missy Blake?” Lamb crossed his legs, getting comfortable watching Logan’s face.  
  
    “No.” Logan’s eyes were down, and Veronica wanted to nudge him. A recent ex-boyfriend that wouldn’t cooperate poly-syllaballically with police was shady at best; they’d covered this in the car. Not to mention, she intended to make this hurt for Lamb, and she needed a decent conversation flow for that.  
  
    “Do you know anything about her disappearance?” Lamb pressed on.  
  
   “I do not.” Logan sighed. “Got any other stumpers?”  
  
   Veronica’s phone went off on cue, a Britney song she could be appropriately embarrassed of.  
  
   “ _Oops_ ,” She winced and met Logan’s eyes. “I’ve really gotta step out to take this.”  
  
   Rushing out of the room, Veronica silenced her phone and made herself small and invisible as possible in the much-occupied office to creep into the evidence room, a la Don Lamb’s office keys. She couldn’t wait to tell her dad how lax security had gotten around here; she bit back that thought, he didn’t take joy in it like she did, the way the office didn’t work under Lamb, maybe she wouldn’t tell him after all.  
  
    Missing evidence in the year’s biggest case wouldn’t go over well with the FBI drones milling around the sheriff’s office, and if she didn’t think it’d end up being her headache Veronica would’ve swiped things anyway. Instead, she carefully removed the seal tape on Missy’s case box and took pictures of new information. The case files she already had had been leaked through the internet, in pictures like she was taking now. The crime scene photos of Missy’s car, with the blood and conjecture, were easy access online. Veronica needed the new files, the additions to the case since the involvement of the FBI and the supposed ramping up of office security. She snapped a picture of the full inventory of Missy’s car- trying not to delve and keep her fingers moving. The bomb of Logan alone with Lamb in the other room could go off at any minute, and anyone with keys to the room could walk in and arrest her.  
  
   Missy’s parents’ statements, full incident reports that hadn’t been leaked- Veronica took pictures of the documents. The file of the Sheriff’s suspect lists and the FBI profiles Veronica could barely hold back from reading on the spot she snapped pictures of and carefully replaced them in the box.  
  
    Placing the top back on the box, gently, Veronica replaced the tape seal with an expertise she’d have to fight not to brag about, when the box next to Missy’s case caught her eye.  
  
      Lilly Kane Murder Case, in black sharpie.  
  
  Come on, didn’t the universe mean to check Veronica at all? Slowly, she shook her head and peeled back the seal.  
  
  
  
  
  Minutes later, she toted her cell phone back into Lamb’s office, where Logan looked up at her, having a decidedly _worse_ time than she had, and clearly done playing distraction.  
  
    “Did you tell him about Weevil sleeping with Missy, yet? My dad _really_ needs me at home, we really have to go. Such a _shame_ , too, I was looking forward to getting reacquainted, Lamb.” She pouted at him, leaving the door open behind her, waiting on Logan.  
  
    “Weevil Navarro and Missy Blake were an item? Cheating girlfriend kind of puts you back in the hotseat, don’t you think?” Lamb stood, too, after Logan.  
  
      _Hotseat? Someone call CSI Miami, we’ve got a writing recruit on our hands_ , Veronica bit her lip.  
  
    “Ex girlfriend, keep up sheriff, we covered that.” Logan sported a patronizing grin Veronica was finally glad wasn’t on her, and waved out of Lamb’s office, breathing relief almost instantaneously.  
  
     Veronica put her hand on Logan’s back the whole way to the car, neither of them saying any odd words that came to mind about it.  
  
    “You did good, kid.” She pulled a gravelly accent for distance and scowled at him, getting in the car to drive him home, and for a second Logan Echolls didn’t want to hurt Veronica Mars.  
    


	16. The City Half-Asleep

     When Neptune's dark and pretending to be asleep, that's when it feels the most like home to New Veronica. The Camelot's the playground for unsavory types, and Veronica bites back a thought about how that feels homey now, too. A world where people lie to, steal from, and cheat on people they swore they loved. It was enough to make a girl thrive in solitude- no matter how optional it might not be.   
  
    Her dad had asked-without-asking her to tail _this_ husband in particular; his wife was sure he was cheating, and if midnight rendezvous at the Camelot didn't scream infidelity loudly enough, the money shot sure would.   
  
    When her phone rang, silence disturbed, she inhaled sharply and answered.   
  
    "Veronica Mars, Private Dick speaking." She couldn't help but smile at herself.   
  
     "I love it when you  _start_ with the dirty talk, Ronnie," Logan smirked, leaning back into his couch, phone pressed to his ear. "Does that mean you're not too busy for some interesting Echolls family occurrences?"  
  
     Eyes still locked on the husband's hotel room for any sign of activity, Veronica tucked her phone into the crook of her neck, hands on her Nikon. The word  _interesting_ in her line of work, usually meant her _night_ was about to get more interesting. Especially if it came from Logan.   
  
     "Bingo." Veronica whispered mostly to herself, snapping the money shot of the husband kissing a redhead in a hotel robe goodnight.   
  
     "Paydirt?" Logan's voice had something in it that sounded accusatory. Veronica's mind brought up a scene they'd made in the library shortly after Lily's death; Logan's issues with her dad, and their line of work, were always pretty upfront. Or low blows.  
  
     "Something like that." Resting her camera on the passenger's seat, Veronica sighed. "You know how phone calls usually work, right? You called me, I'm assuming there's a reason."  
  
     "Ah, yes," He grumbled. "Why does my father think you're writing a story on him for the school newspaper?" He heard Veronica groan and there was a small satisfaction in it for him.   
  
     "I, uh... sort of interviewed him in his trailer before Missy disappeared. I'll call him and say we're pushing the story back or something. Actually, weird question incoming, why does your dad have so many cell phones?" Resting her hand against her mouth, Veronica got more comfortable in her car; Neptune's underbelly still comfortable for her. Even some of the adulterers were in their own beds already, her mind quipped.   
  
     "Nice disclaimer banner, um... I think one line's for his agent and big Hollywood, you know, one's for  _personal_ use, I don't know.. why?" Logan's mouth felt dry, like every other time he talked to New Veronica. He knew the quote about shooting the messenger, but couldn't he at least hate the messenger a lot?  
  
     "It's nothing, just thought it was weird, guy having three cell phones." She held her breath for a second, constantly unsure if she was stepping in it with him.   
  
     "Busy people, busy phones, Veronica. Anyway, according to the normal phone call handbook, that's it, I guess. We have another geography quiz tomorrow morning." He doesn't know why he mentions it; he doesn't know why he remembered to. But he shrugged it off and powered through. "Nighty night, Private Dick." His phone clipped closed and Veronica Mars went back to being a non-thought. Like it was supposed to be. 


	17. Introducing: The Neptune Killer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for abuse mention, domestic violence mention, abusive relationship mention
> 
> be safe out there, kids

     "V." Veronica didn't make it to third period before Weevil called in the corridor.  
  
     "Let me guess," Veronica slung her bag over her shoulder, eyebrows raised. "You're collecting?"  
  
     "It's not a favor that's just for me," Weevil's tone spoke volumes more than the words.  
  
     Weevil took a final glance around, everyone else too busy with their day to pay attention to them, and he started to explain what he could. His cousin, Willa, needed a ride to Santa Barbara to stay with other relatives. Away from Neptune, an abusive boyfriend, and the PCHers. Eyes never leaving Veronica's, Weevil watched the way she swallowed at the abuse mention, and he watched the eternal spring of Veronica Mars questioning bubble to fruition.   
  
     "Why not just have the PCHers handle the guy?" Seemed the most obvious solution to Veronica,  _unless_ , "It  _is_ someone affiliated with the PCH. Someone with clout, obviously or you wouldn't be _here_." Veronica kept her voice low, and there was a beat where Weevil denied nothing.   
  
     "None of us can know where she is; it's safer that way. I know she has relatives up there but even I don't know where exactly- she'll tell you herself when you pick her up. V, I know it's an eight hour round trip but don't make me start getting out my IOU cards." He waited for her nod. "She has your number, she has to call you when you she can."  
  
     Veronica's head tried to recall a statistic, but only the core concept was coming through clear: the most dangerous time in an abusive relationship is the end, after the victim's determined to get out. Hopefully the eight hour round trip would be enough for Willa to be safe. When she finally got the call after school, Veronica almost felt like breathing again. Almost. After they'd determined where they were going, most of the car ride Willa sat silently, seemingly on edge; Veronica could understand. Well, she could at least try to, she figured.   
  
     Santa Barbara dwarfed Neptune. Veronica never really felt like a small town girl, but she could hope in a city like Santa Barbara Willa would be hard to find if it came to that. Unpacking the car was easy; all Willa brought from her old life was two duffel bags, presumably full of clothes and personal items. Watching her walk away, hopefully free and clear into a new life, Veronica waved her good luck in earnest. Willa at least deserved some luck to start her new life.  
  
     Veronica was closer to Neptune than not when dawn broke, and she finally understood why people wrote songs about 'cruising down the 405,' and even if she had to stifle a yawn, she had a minute of peace driving home into daybreak. It's a new day, a Tuesday specifically, and Veronica dragged the comb from her bag through her hair and then dragged her feet to first period. If she'd known there was gonna be a substitute she might've stopped home.   
  
    "Up all night thinking about me again?" Logan caught her in a hazy yawn-turned-glare at his approach.   
  
    "However much sleep I look like I got last night, I got  _less_ , so if you could please-"  
  
     A scream erupted from the hall that turned into multiple screams, with everybody stunned for a minute until they clamored to the door to see the commotion. And that was  _it_ , wasn't it; dawn had been her moment of peace for the whole year. Filed out into the hall, the student body as a group absorbed the sight. Plastered on every locker were hundreds of stickers, reading in blood red ink  _The Neptune Killer Was Here._ Before the first bell there hadn't been any stickers, and just minutes later, the school was covered. If the Neptune killer wanted everyone's attention, including Veronica Mars, she was certainly prepared to give it to them. Over the crowd, Veronica and Logan made eye contact, for a brief moment among the confusion. Her blank face unnerved him, but she'd only resigned to holding these people responsible. Before, it'd been about Lilly's killer. Making them pay. Now they were victimizing the whole school, not just Lilly and Missy. Breaking her silent conversation with Logan, Veronica sighed. Her dad was going to look into homeschooling again, she knew it. 


	18. Ace in The Hole

      _Could Veronica Mars please report to Vice Principal Clemmons' office_ just  _had_ to ring out over the chaos of a school-wide early dismissal.   
  
     "Ms. Mars," Clemmons gestured to the beige seat in his beige office. Veronica's tiny, wincing smile only came from the fact she had a little bronze key to it.  _For emergencies_ , she'd crossed her heart.   
  
     "I heard something about an early dismissal," Veronica feigned a confused pout, prompting him.   
  
     "I know we've had our disagreements..."   
  
     Veronica raised her eyebrows, innocent as a blue-eyed little lamb. Clemmons pressed on, "Do you have any indication of who would have the means or motive to pull this morning's little stunt?"  
  
     She couldn't hold back a laugh, before straightening her face into only measured, minute amounts of amused.   
  
     "Wait, a minute. You want...  _my_ help? How does administration even-" Veronica shook her head, thinking about all the things she  _hoped_ Clemmons didn't hear about. "You know, I'm pretty sure I'm out of your price range. City budget and all."  
  
     "Two hall passes, signed by me, and a get out of jail free on your next counseling session with Ms. James." Clemmons folded his hands over his desk, like a man playing poker with a hand of pocket tens. Not nothing, but nothing fantastic.   
  
     The hall passes would help, and avoiding Ms. James interested Veronica plenty.   
  
     "What if... I also asked for a schedule change? You take me out of Home Ec because we  _both know_ I'm never gonna make someone a good little wife, and you let me into Newspaper in the middle of the term."  
  
     "Why?" Veronica Mars was no Neptune legend to a thirty year veteran like Clemmons; he saw her sitting there, a teenage girl like any...Playing poker with a coy smile.   
  
     "Can't a girl wanna pursue a hobby?" Veronica grinned when Clemmons dropped his negotiation face.   
  
      Pocket tens didn't always mean defeat; sometimes you just had to make it to the river and hope for the best.   
  
     "This needs to be done by Friday." Clemmons started to dismiss Veronica. "And Ms. Mars? Discretion is required.   
  
      Veronica mimed zipping her lips and throwing away the key. The halls were deserted now, except for a few janitors and detention sad-sacks furiously chipping off the school's new bone-chilling decor. An idea sprung to mind.   
  
     "Excuse me, can I have one of those?" Charmed smile spread, Veronica tried to displace the fresh disgust she felt for whoever did this- whether they  _were_ a killer or not; and Veronica had a growing suspicion they were  _not._ "It's for Mr. Clemmons."  
      
      The janitor acquiesced, handing her a sticker and _god_ , she was gonna get a lot of mileage out of Clemmons this week.   
  
      Top down, sunglasses on in the LeBaron, next stop was Staples. Not just because Clemmons' tape dispenser had been empty.    
  
      

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter will be a bit longer, we're gonna start wrapping some things up and getting v refocused. swear it.


	19. Chapter 19

     Friday morning, Veronica woke with a start, fighting a shudder and Lilly's laugh in her ears. It's a complicated feeling, wanting Lilly there and being troubled by seeing her; having her presence or at least dreams of her bubble questions to the surface. There's always sun around Lilly in Veronica's dreams, just this endless, California gold, and that only seems right in her mind. The frozen shower Veronica takes to get ready for the day, get ready for what's about to happen... well, that's right too, she thinks.   
  
    Veronica rapped her knuckles on Clemmons' office door, head tilted expectantly for the scene she'd requested.   
  
    "Morning, Mr. C." Veronica looked at the almost-cramped office and wondered if she was going to enjoy this just a little too much.  _Only one way to find out_.   
  
     Sheriff Lamb, at Veronica's request, sat in the office as well as Will Headley, a Neptune student Veronica probably wouldn't have recognized on the street before. A scrawny, sophomore-ish looking sophomore, who squirmed under her stare.   
  
    "Did you  _know_ that over the course of my Neptune high career, there have only been three expulsions?" Veronica mused, watching Clemmons ease himself back into his desk chair.   
  
     "Is some lucky blonde volunteering to be the fourth? Just glad you invited me along to watch, then." Lamb lolled his head in her direction, arms crossed, but today's not about Lamb. Lamb's a spectator, the silent arm of improbable authority that Veronica planned to use as her leverage.  _Dance, monkey, dance_ Veronica grinned, set her jaw, and refocused.   
  
     "Last year, actually. Maybe you remember, Mr. C? Then-juniors, a group of friends who'd vandalised the girl's gym locker-room with taunts about the Lilly Kane murder." Veronica steeled herself, thought of the gold light before her cold shower, and made herself enjoy this. "You expelled them and personally wrote recommendations for separate counseling and reform schools. Ouch!" She scrunched her nose.   
  
    "Those are sealed records-"  
  
    Veronica wasted a second on a glance of  _please, give me some credit_ , and smiled on.   
  
    "Turns out, you'd only held 75% of the responsible parties responsible- Will here, a then-freshman, got hefty detention for his role in the deviance- I believe the scientific term is  _lookout man_ \- and a little black spot on his permanent file-" Veronica put her hand on Will's shoulder. "After all, highschool is  _hard_ , and you just fell in with a  _bad crowd_."  
  
     Lamb shifted in his seat, and gave an exaggerated yawn Veronica had no trouble pointedly ignoring.   
  
    "But the bonds of friendship- how tightly they wind. Even different schools couldn't scare you boys straight- you four stayed in contact- never letting go of... what do they call it? A grudge? Ole Mr. C here, he marked you and your best friends for life. I mean, reform school in senior year? How does that look to a college?" Veronica tossed Will a pout to compliment her glare. "He scattered your little delinquents club, but he left one little cockroach in the nest."   
  
     "It was Tommy's idea!" Will held up his hands in surrender and Clemmons and Lamb sat up a bit straighter. "He  _said_ you'd all be too stupid to figure out it was us! And there's nothing you can even do to them you already  _expelled_ them and ruined their lives! Like she said!"   
  
     Staples had been a bust, but Neptune's own locally-owned copy place had been a  _wealth_ of pertinent information. Tommy, apparently the would-be mastermind, booted from reform school found himself working in his dad's copy place, 'to learn responsibility and discipline.' (Tommy's words)  
  
      The problem, Veronica figured, was that to Tommy  _responsibility_ and  _discipline_ just weren't as interesting as getting the old Neptune band back together, and pulling off the world's most tactless, crassest revenge prank. Bile still burned in Veronica's throat from pretending to flatter the kid into talking about the  _plan_. He was hesitant at first, insisting he just made the stickers for a Neptune kid. But hot blonde waxing poetical about what a  _legend_ the guy who pulled it  _must've_ been. He practically recorded his own confession. Again, Will played  _lookout_ , with the added bonus of getting them in the building. And then Tommy, Arman, and Alex, armed with hot-off-the-presses  _Neptune Killer_ stickers, and Tommy's dad's sticker rollers, waited in the wings while the general Neptune populace started first period. Will rerouted kids from that hallway until the deed was done, and then slipped late into first period to wait for the chaos. Veronica rolled her eyes. Some people just gave the vengeance game a bad rap. Not to mention they'd really implemented the same scheme that got them busted last year.   
  
    Once she'd talked to Tommy, Wallace pulled the expulsion records, and maybe they wouldn't turn on eachother, but causing public panic was something for the Sheriff's office to deal with; Veronica was betting Lamb would take any small victory he could get, given the media tornado-circus-hybrid knocking down his Sheriff's office door. Even if she had practically gift-wrapped this small victory for him.   
  
    "There's a rumor you took down the Neptune Killer before homeroom this morning." Logan looked her over at her locker at the end of the day, actually smiling which Veronica doesn't know what to make of. Like he's amused, and she's thrown for a second.   
  
    "More like the Neptune tree killer. 1000 sheets of stickers. Do you 09ers ever get tired of effectively just burning money?" Veronica teased, with a less-than-usual helping of genuine malice, and rolled her eyes as Logan's dramatic yawn response. She took a deep breath and figured this was as good a time as any to rip off the band-aid of good will. "Any way you could drive your Weevil-mobile to my dad's office after closing tonight?"  
  
    Veronica wasn't surprised when Logan's face changed; insolent bemusement to sullen resignation. But this was how it had to be.   
  
    "What time's closing?"  
  
    "Pizza date with Wallace at eight, say you swing by around ten? Maybe I save you a slice if possible. In the interest of cooperation." Veronica tucked her contraband  _Neptune Killer_ sticker under a textbook in her locker. Just a small reminder for Clemmons on the next locker check. Today had been a good day, but it was far from over.   
  
     "Right. The interest of cooperation." Logan caught Duncan's eye in the hall and grimaced a final glance at Veronica. "I like anchovies, by the way."  
  
     Veronica holds back that she remembers, she remembers sitting on the floor in Lilly's room braving a bite of anchovies at Logan's encouraging. Instead, she let her nose scrunch speak for itself and watched the testosterone-fueled half of the Fab Four meet in the hallway in almost-slow motion. Whether or not the  _Neptune Killer_ existed, someone had killed Lilly; had snuffed a gold light, and Veronica wasn't about to let that go just yet. 


	20. MSC (Mutually Secured Cooperation)

     Logan tossed Veronica his car keys and closed Mars' Investigations' glass door behind him. Cold pizza box on the coffee table, he flipped up the top and pouted at her.   
  
    "I thought I made a great case for anchovies." He started grabbing a slice anyway, pepperoni was fine after all, but Veronica slid a paper plate with two anchovies slices down to his side of the table.   
  
    "Wallace likes pepperoni, but I called in a favor at Dominic's for some leftover anchovies." She tapped a fingernail on the coffee table, and then vacated the couch for him to sit and eat. She prefered the desk chair anyways, dad had splurged at the thrift store for the roll-y chair  _with_ the cushion.   
  
     She was going to owe Wallace for tonight, too, because as understanding as he was, she'd been using the 'With Wallace' excuse on her dad a little hard lately. There was still the question of how much Veronica should tell her dad about any of this. Wallace had made some pretty good 'tell Keith' arguments; Veronica promising to think them over, but mostly she felt a little in-too-deep to start explaining now. Explanations that were difficult, like why the Lilly Kane Murder Investigation interrogation audios were being recorded onto back-up tapes in the corner of the office; soft click of the recorder drawing her attention every couple of minutes like the tell-tale heart about to guilt her into confessing to her dad that she had not, in fact, dropped the idea of catching Lilly Kane's killer. Oh, and trying to find Missy Blake. One way or another.   
  
     "You even have something on the pizza guy? You've really changed, 'Ronica Mars," Logan sunk into the office couch, thinking not for the first time about what Lilly would think of New Veronica. As much as he thinks he deserves some of the credit, the Veronica-kill-hate-die stare had been created for him, after all, Logan likes to think Lilly created parts of this Veronica, too. The flared hair, the smart mouth. There was an unspoken goodness about Old Veronica Mars, someone innocent, not helpless, smart but a little naive, and there'd been the unspoken debate over whether to protect that or corrupt it. Logan shrugged, figuring like a lot of things in life, Lilly never really got to make up her mind about that. And now she never would.   
  
      _I've changed?_ Veronica got her Nikon from it's cozy desk drawer spot.  _Funny what a little trauma and tragedy won't do to a person._  
  
_"I_ 'm...gonna go check your car for- _" Blood? A body? Signed confession note?_   _C'mon Veronica, say something_ \- Logan cut her off and finished the thought for her with a wave of his pizza crumbed hand.   
  
     "If you need me to bend over, just ask." Logan smiled up at her falsely, all white-teeth and stiff features.   
  
     She didn't really want to, but she let him have the last word with only a slight sigh; a concession in the interest of cooperation. About half-way down the stairs out the building a thought crossed Veronica's mind. She'd just left Logan Echolls, known Veronica despiser and cruel jackass, alone in her office to put his pizza-crumbed, grubby little hands all over her carefully redecorated life.   
  
      _Veronica Mars, afraid of a snooper? Yeah, well._ Irony could bite her.   
  
     "Actually, why don't you come? Then I can just ask follow-ups with you there." She popped her head in the office and exhaled a tiny (tiny!) breath of relief when he got up to follow her. The click of the tape recorder in the corner drummed further relief into her; somehow she didn't think Logan finding a tape of his interrogation about Lilly would go well with all of their cooperation efforts.   
  
     "So what're you gonna do, run the plates or something? I promise, I have no outstanding tickets, officer." Logan smoothed his hands on his thighs while she clicked the trunk open and slung her camera strap over her neck. It was strange, reconciling this Veronica with Old Veronica. She'd always been good with secrets, the Lilly Kane drama magnet regularly required some degree of discretion, and yeah, maybe a little sleuthing. They'd only tried to surprise Veronica once; for her fifteenth birthday they'd tried planning a surprise party. Back then, Logan just thought they weren't very good at keeping the secret; Lilly talked too much, and Logan got chatty when he drank, and Duncan was just a bad liar. Eventually their flimsy excuses and shifty act must've gave them away. But now, she's inspecting his car for clues about another ex-girlfriend disappearing, and maybe New Veronica wasn't the only V who was like a bloodhound on a scent.   
  
     "Plates are sketchy, a gift from Weevil," Like that explains that, "But they're clean." Veronica leaned into the trunk. She doesn't look up to see his 'weirded out' face, but she guesses it's there by his silence. And it isn't exactly unpredictable. "With my dad's PI license, there are certain perks. Access to all kinds of databases; cell records, plate specs, arrest records," She gave him a pointed glance and closed the trunk, satisfied. Moving on to the sedan's doors, Veronica doesn't know why she's telling him all this; it's not like she cares if this is hard for him.  
  
     "Hey, hey. They never  _arrested_ me in TJ, we were only questioned." Logan retorts the technicality like New Veronica Mars would believe an indiscretion wasn't his fault. Presuming his innocence was all Old Veronica; his friend.   
  
    "I didn't say I'd seen  _yours_ , Logan. But thanks for the freebie, I'm gonna hold on to that." She ran her fingertips along the door's side card panelling- no cracks or hollowed out panels jumped out at her. Aside from a few dings here and there, Veronica figured he could've ended up on a worse end of a deal with Weevil and the PCH. Clean interior wasn't fool-proof innocence, but the lack of paint transfer from Missy's car on the body, and the lack of fresh paint to cover any, helped Veronica breathe a little easier.   
  
     "Mr. Echolls, I think for now you're free to go." Veronica let a nervous laugh escape the tension of investigating her dead-best-friend's-boyfriend in another girl's disappearance.   
  
     "Does this mean the great Dick Mars is absolving me of wrong doing?" He kept his face shocked and surprised when she handed his keys back. "I know I won't get an apology out of you, but anchovies and a declaration of innocence... I'm gonna start thinking you have a soft spot for me, Ronnie."  
  
     "I'm only a little dick, remember? My dad's the one with the license. And you're the one with the soft spot, Echolls." She walked back to the door of the building. "In your brain, obviously. Wait... that assumes you have one.." She chewed a lip.   
  
     "Goodnight, Veronica." Climbing into the car, hands against the steering wheel, Logan laughed to himself for exactly one second.  _Veronica Mars thinks I'm innocent,_ the thought popped in unexpectedly, and was unexpectedly reassuring. And it's not like he  _cares_ , but half the school thinking you're a cold-blooded murderer, could drive even a jackass like Logan Echolls around the bend a little. A little. The light's still on in Mars Investigations when he drives away, and  _doesn't she ever just sleep?_


	21. Dog Beach or the Doghouse? Anybody's Guess

    Veronica Mars _does_ sleep, and nothing pressed her want to stay in bed more than a Saturday morning. But wait...syrupy-sweetness, wafting into her room? Rolling over in bed, Veronica _swore_ she smelled pancakes...and bacon? _We all have our weaknesses,_ she conceded and followed her nose.  
  
    “Good morning, favorite daughter. Can I interest you in some pancakes and bacon? Freshly squeezed juice? A caffeinated beverage of a sort? Did you sleep well?” Keith held out a plate of bacon and watch Veronica tentatively take a slice.  
  
    “Did I happen to hit my head very hard? Maybe wake up in some strange perfect universe?” Her dad’s wearing the _kiss the cook_ apron, and Mars family rules dictated a kiss on the cheek. Veronica knew a honeypot when she saw one, though. Something was definitely up in casa de Mars today. Something _bad_ if her dad was buttering her up with bacon.  
  
    “Well, you _must’ve_ hit your head pretty hard, honey.” There was a pause, Keith digging for a piece of mail behind him. “Maybe that’s what explains why you were in Santa Barbara at 2 am on a school night without even _telling_ me. Funny things, those traffic cameras. Always with the time and date stamps. So tell me why didn’t you pose for the picture?”  
  
    He’s angry, she gets that, but that drive was a good place to start, Veronica’s ready to spin. Because that had actually been a genuinely good deed, she felt genuinely good about. That started like helping out Weevil, but did her dad need every tiny particular?  
  
    “This is unacceptable, Veronica. What were you _doing_ there and why wouldn’t you _tell_ me?”  
  
   She only hated herself a _little_ for craving another piece of bacon to get through this discussion.  
  
    “I can’t believe I got a ticket,” Is what she started with, because that’s where her brain started. “But dad, I was helping a friend get away from a bad boyfriend. The kind you change _cities_ to get away from. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. That was the day the sticker thing happened at school and the drive to Santa Barbara kinda got buried by that lead.”  
  
   Recognizable guilt in her chest, for worrying her dad, for keeping some things from him... The problem was every time she wanted to come clean there was something else to come clean about, and even if they’re fighting she didn’t want to risk his disappointment.  
  
    “Your friend’s okay?” Keith swore that wasn’t his resolve softening. Just a clarification of the story. Her non-committal nod is about the best he hopes for. “You can’t just take off in the middle of the night without telling me, Veronica. I can’t be one of those parents tearing up on Nancy Grace.” He meant that, he didn’t know what he would do if he lost her. “You’re all I have, Veronica.”  
  
    Caught eyeing a piece of bacon as a diversionary tactic, she takes it if only to get the dryness out of her mouth. Of course, everything came back to the _Neptune Killer_. Or at least Missy’s disappearance and all the weirdness at school. Focused, sometimes she could be a bit with the overboard. Her dad’s thoughts were always about her and she’d let her thoughts stray a little too far from home base on this one, she could admit to that readily.  
  
    “I’m really sorry, dad. I didn’t mean to not tell you that. It just sort of happened.” There are late nights, when her dad’s gone and she’s worried. She knows what it feels like to not know what he’s doing, and she doesn’t want to burden him with that. But would all of the truth really help?  
  
    “Look, there’s gotta be a new order here. I need to know where you are, where you’re gonna be, okay? _Without_ checking your cell’s location. New Mars family tradition incoming,” He passed her a pancake with a sigh. She be tiny but fierce, his little girl. “Let’s say we start talking about our days’ more, and throw in some quality family meals, okay? Just you, me, the orange stuff, and an itinerary run-down.”  
  
    “At 9:15, I cut a pancake. At 9:17, I poured orange juice. Freshly squeezed, of course, who doesn’t love an itinerary with details?” It’s a joke, but a genuinely meant gesture of good faith. She doesn’t want her dad to worry, that hasn’t changed. And maybe a little honesty and unburdening couldn’t hurt the impenetrable Veronica Mars.  


* * *

  
  
    If Veronica didn’t know any better, she could’ve theorized this was a small, cruel, tactical move- an attempt at a joke, maybe?- Clemmons laughing at her from his desk, sipping a Scotch surrounded by plumes of villainous, spiteful smoke. Fine, he’s a little vanilla to be that devious, but he at least had the streak in him, because Veronica starts her new schedule with Newspaper like she wanted, but not exactly the company she’d been counting on. Duncan, Logan, and Madison were all apparently Newspaper darlings- why didn’t Veronica just ask for a transfer into her fanclub’s meeting period; only Lamb was missing!  
  
     _Eyes down, feet forward. Eyes down, feet forward._ A year of that could get you through any fire. Veronica snatched a seat with her back to the class. Well, all the parts of it she didn’t want to see, anyway.  
  
   On the upside, maybe a class with zero socialization possibilities meant a chance to rewrite the the epic backstory of Neptune’s Hollywood crush, Aaron Echolls; and to start listening to the digital files she’d made of Lily’s interrogation tapes. She hoped for a second it’d take her mind off everything with her dad, but of course, as acting Sheriff, when she pressed play she heard his voice intro the tape, and he’d be the one asking the questions. Work voice, all business, but it’s him, nonetheless. A tap on the shoulder made Veronica pull out her headphones. The tracks are listed as songs, a bunch’ve Lilly’s favorites like an ode, but it doesn’t stop Veronica from covering her ipod with her hands.  
  
    “Should I tell my dad to start looking for an article?” Veronica’s sudden transfer didn’t escape Logan’s notice, and the shit-eating grin tells her she should be rolling her eyes in about 3...2...1… “You know,” He brushed his fingers on his chin, the smirk on him about ready to bloom, “ _Missy_ tried getting transferred into this class last month. There weren’t any available seats in the middle of the term.” He gestured dramatically to the chair she was sitting in, asking without asking.  
  
    “Clemmons didn’t owe Missy a favor,” Matter-of-fact cool in her voice, Veronica spun her seat back to her notes on Aaron; a quiet thought about how that was the real business she was in these days, trading favors. Sure, there was the PI work angle, she had to sweat for it, but if everybody’s a little dirty then nobody’s clean, and Veronica’s learned the hard lesson that nobody _was_ clean. Nobody she knew, anyway.  
  
    “You know, Missy wanted in Newspaper so we could make out when Ms. Dent’s preoccupied.” They both watched the teacher with her back to the class, helping another student with a layout format. “That wouldn’t happen to be your motivation, huh, V’ronica?”  
  
    She was pissed about the comment, sure, but he was standing over her in a way that was as familiar as it was unwelcome. Bit like him that way.  
  
    “Clemmons still owes me, you know. Would _hate_ for him to randomly search your locker for your manners and social graces only to find a contraband of some unsavory sort.” There’s a little bite in the bluff, just so he goes away. In a way, Veronica’s sort of relieved. They’d worked together in a fairly casual capacity, but this was school- they both had their respective reputations to protect and apparently Logan knew it, too. Amateur-jackass-looking-to-go-pro-in-college, and whatever version of hell-bitch-from-the-land-of-misfit-toys Veronica was supposed to be today. _It’s just easier_ , she thought, to stay bitter. Just because they’d worked together they were supposed to be friends? Logan Echolls was a sadistic creep she used to call a friend until her made her life hell; what was anchovies to someone like that? He was still in her ear though, smirk ever prevailing.  
  
    “You’re a lot more fun now, Veronica.” Was all the response he offered before crossing the room back to a waiting and confused-looking Duncan.  
  
     _Fun?_ Fun compared to _what_ Veronica felt like demanding. She reset her breath with a sigh. _Fun_. So that’s what that smirk meant. Meant he was having _fun_. Headphones back in, she ignored the way he kept looking over at her every six minutes. Seriously, she timed him and thought he must’ve been timing it, too. It’s when he smiled, not smirked, smiled at her, that she put her head down and focused to the bell, noticing a disappointing lack of progress in the Aaron Echolls department. The article, maybe a follow up interview?- could be a nice excuse to talk to him again, figure out why her spider-sense crazed around him. Gross staring at her aside, he could have motive to hurt Missy and talking to him again _could_ help her put a finger on what specifically she’s picking up on that made her weary. Her dad would just love that.  
  
     They could talk about it at dinner, crack open a packet of the old orange stuff and discuss how a fifty-year-old man leered himself into suspicion in a missing person’s case.  
  
    So the new Mars’ deal had a few kinks, she mused dryly. Veronica still had a murder to- _Weevil?_ Veronica froze, and glanced around the hall for a sec, before catching his voice in her earbuds again. Why was Weevil interrogated about Lilly? Local street kid the first likely suspect? Maybe under Lamb, but her dad had run the investigation; _for awhile, anyway._  
  
    Weevil sounds desperate to explain, on the tape. That he loved Lilly, he would never hurt her even though she was always with other guys, even guys he hated. That he was crazy about her, couldn’t get enough of her, but she eventually had enough of playing dangerous with him. Swearing up and down that he’d never put his hands on her if she didn’t ask.  
  
   The rest of Veronica’s classes were an excruciatingly long blur. Not to mention _distracting_ because she had a million things to think about that weren’t math or english related. They mostly revolved around _Lilly and Weevil???? Lilly and_ ** _Weevil????_** Who knew about it? Did Logan? Why hadn’t Lilly said anything to her then and  why hadn’t Weevil said anything to her _since?_ Especially since he’d had that special relationship with Missy before _her_ disappearance.  
  
  At the dismissal bell, Veronica all but sprinted to Weevil’s new bike. For a second she considered sitting on it, opening with a joke- but her chest was pounding in ways that were shockingly critically unfunny.  
  
    His face didn’t light up to see her waiting. _The funny syphilis,_ he’d called her? Veronica smarted a thought about contacting her local authorities and checking up on the local laws regarding torture as an interrogation device. Sure, not really effective, but worth the ‘ole Neptune try.  
  
    “We need to talk.” Veronica hardly trusted her voice to get the words out. He pushed his helmet into her hands and it took a second of staring for her to catch on and shake her head.  
  
   “You wanna _talk?_ Let’s go talk.” Weevil nodded, recognized the tick in her jaw; the reckless streak of a bloodhound doing anything to follow it’s scent. She hesitated another moment, and then pulled on the helmet and swung her leg over the motorcycle behind him. Decidedly unsure of what to do with her hands, Veronica let them hang for a moment before Weevil tucked her arms into the leather of his jacket. “You’re gonna wanna hold on, V,” he leaned back a bit. If they caught people’s eyes in the parking lot, so be it; ‘ _Weevil rides off with ex-09-er blonde’_ if Opie’s jaw set any harder at the sight his movie star dad would have to get him some shiny new braces. It’s a surprisingly small comfort to Weevil’s nerves; he usually liked to watch the aftermath of a Veronica Mars decimation- he wasn’t thrilled he might be on the receiving end of one.  
  
    Weevil took his time driving to Dog Beach, he felt her relax against him eventually- as much as a riled Veronica Mars could relax, he guessed- and he held the bike steady to let her off when they arrived.  
  
    “You wanted to talk about something?” It’s cute the way she ducks out of the too-big helmet, even as the face she made looked like it could physically hurt him. Like somebody stole her mean little pooch and was going to get her bite for it.  
  
   “Why didn’t you tell me about you and Lilly?” She tore the band aid off and lit it on fire; grounding out the words and watching him sigh, exasperated and dramatic like _he_ had a right to be pissed off.  
  
   “Can you talk to dead people? Because that’s the only way you could possibly, _possibly_ know anything about that.” Her recoil at the word _dead_ didn’t thrill him and he tried to stay ahead of her. “What are you accusing me of, Veronica?”  
  
   “Why didn’t you tell me about you and Lilly?” She promised she was trying to stay calm, stay cool, stay collected. Lilly’s voice laughing about a secret, and Weevil’s confessions of passionate love rolling around in her head. And how did Missy fit in?  
  
   “She didn’t love me, V. She didn’t want to.” He’s not about to rehash the heartbreak in front of Veronica Mars. “Ask me what you really want to ask me.” He looked her straight on- no head tilt, no faux flirting. She doesn’t look afraid of him- he wanted to shake his head at that; she _never_ looked scared of him. She looked pissed though, and skeptical and shaken. On the edge of something. Wasn’t she always?  
  
   “Did you?” She had to say it, loaded bombshell meaning and all. She needed to ask it. _Did you love her did you kill her did you make her leave me_. She didn’t shy away, jaw firm, still holding his motorcycle helmet; a breath away from demanding every minute detail he’d kept from her.  
  
   Weevil exhaled a heavy sigh and lifted his shirt, revealing what he thought explained a hell of a lot. Lilly Kane had marked him, he’d just gotten the tattoo.  
  
    “You got that for her?” It’s not answer, she knows that- he isn’t off the hook- but it’s something even if Veronica wasn’t sure what exactly. “The day she died-” Veronica stopped. “The day she was murdered- she told me she had a secret to tell me. A good one.” Veronica let her eyes close for a minute, fighting the heady breathlessness that was kicking the crap out of her.  
  
    “We’d…” It’s _pathetic_ that he wanted so badly to say broken up. _Broken up_ wildly overstated his importance in Lilly’s life. Breaking up was for Logan, the pretty boy playing bad when he needed to throw a tantrum. _No_. Lilly’s dead, he loved her, and space between the pain of loving Lilly Kane and standing here with Veronica Mars, was the size of the grand fucking canyon. Weevil’s not about to throw himself back in the pit of the valley. “...already stopped hanging out before she died. We were old news, you know? Or I was anyway. You knew Lilly better than anyone.”  
  
    “She’d already had a new secret.” Veronica surmised, looking at him hard again; tattoo still fresh in her mind. She remembered helping him get Willa to safety; away from a man who’s _love_ hurt the object of it. Plus, her dad had cleared him in the initial investigation. Her lip quirked. “You’re the most upstanding gang leader I know.”  
  
    She’s not dropping it, the suspicion. It’s on a suspension with the intent to mull it over some more. It’s a gut feeling that he’s innocent, in _this_ , and she hates that she’s had that thought twice this week.  
  
   “You just keep that to yourself, Blondie.” He pretended not to like her leaning into him to get back on the bike. “But remember it the next time you come sniffing for murder suspects.” There’s a quip that he’s a _gang leader,_ he can at least hide a body or flee properly, but it’s extremely easy to swallow it in the face of famous Veronica suspicion. He’s watched her crush people and heard she’d do worse; it’s his luck that they have dirt on eachother.  
  
    She rolled her eyes, half buying it- there were still too many angles for a snap judgement. In a small way she’d been surprised. She’d anticipated explosion, rage, maybe even violence, definitely not a ride back to her car. _Most upstanding gang leader she knew._ And maybe even still a friend. An almost friend.  
  
    Her car sat alone in the parking lot when they pulled up and she handed him back the helmet, extricating herself from the _hard, hog life._ She felt lighter somehow; talking about Lilly, Weevil’s eyes were soft, even after all this time.  
  
   “You don’t let go easily, do you, V?” Not talking about on the motorcycle ride, he watched her fumble for her keys and meet his eyes. Veronica stared at him for a second longer, brushing helmet hair from her face.  
  
    “I loved her, too.” She said it easily, like it explained everything, and he nodded like it really did.  
  
    Had she _really_ been on a motorcycle ride with a known PCH-er? Or was she merely in an after-school study group all afternoon, studying her heart out safe in the confines of Neptune High? She had the whole drive back to the office to get her Mars-daily report straight.


	22. When Life Gives You LeBarons, Make Lemonade

     "So I guess butch bail bondslady doesn't pay well enough to afford the higher end of lemon, huh, Veronica? You know...you may want to look into this thing called the bus. I've never been on one but I've heard it's for poor people so you'd be like. Right at home. Would hold all of  _us_ up a lot less. Some of us have actual lives we wanna get to." Dick called out from the backseat of the X-terra at Veronica, who'd stalled the LeBaron halfway out of it's space, just enough to block traffic going out this side of the parking lot.   
  
    Contrary to Dick's revelations in taunt, Veronica had somewhere to be in just a few minutes. Tuesday means bank day, so she had to meet her dad's new client at the office and brief them for a little while he deposited checks. There was no way the LeBaron would fail her now. Not when she  _needed_ it. The engine  _click-click-clicked_ another time and didn't turn back over.  _Of course, it would crap out now, actually. Why count on anything when your name's Veronica Mars._ Self pity aside, Veronica huffed a sigh and went to try the key again.   
  
    "Really? Porn and doritos count as a life, now?" Veronica called back and watched Logan grin at her from the driver's seat. Leaving the car, she got out and popped the hood, pointedly ignoring the various honks.   
  
     "Put it in neutral, we'll get it back in the spot, V." Weevil came over, Felix in tow. The involuntary sigh of relief Veronica let escape almost felt embarrassing. Plus, maybe Weevil could give her a lift to the office.   
  
    While Veronica dropped the hood back down and got back in the car, Logan hopped out of the X-terra, "I'll help, too." He offered, and put his hands on the hood opposite Weevil, with Felix pulling on the passenger's A pillar.  
  
    Duncan blinked in the X-terra's passenger seat until he got out, too, and watched Logan, Weevil, and Felix push and pull the LeBaron back into the parking spot after a minute of groans.   
  
    "I can have my uncle come with a tow?" Weevil looked to Veronica in the driver's seat; she tried to start it again, again to no avail.   
  
    "It- it just overheats sometimes. I can have my dad come and pick it up, later, thanks." She shook her head and tucked stray hair behind her ear, more embarrassed  _now_ than when she'd been stuck in the middle of the lot. Now cars were just honking at  _Logan_ to get out of their way.   
  
     "Do you need a ride home?" Logan kept his eyes on her car- a casual offer, to take or leave as the Veronica Mars whim struck.   
  
     "C'mon,  _seriously_?" Dick called from the X-terra and Logan looked to Veronica, her cheeks slightly pink with what he could guess what whatever embarrassment-type-emotion she could still feel. After months of a built up immunity to shame, some of it he'd had a firsthand part in _, _this__ cracked her armor? Her car breaking down?   
  
     "Wouldn't that violate your sworn oath to make me suffer?" She's already stressed, and not too long ago he was slashing her tires so that she'd be stranded on purpose, she didn't have to struggle to remember. Veronica dismissed the offer, grabbing her bag from the LeBaron, about to follow Weevil to his bike.   
  
      "It's not like a  _blood oath_ or anything. It's really no problem." Logan ran a hand through his hair, and gestured back to his car where Duncan was climbing back in, and Weevil waved them off.  _Fine_ , Veronica thought it would at least be better than being late to the client. It was a  _thank you_ , Logan justified, to no one in particular. A thanks, pal, for her declaration of innocence and not telling anyone about his dad and Missy- that was all.   
  
     Duncan's stoic face in the passenger seat still refusing to even see her, and Dick's huffing in the backseat told Veronica that yes, it  _was_ a big deal, just maybe not to Logan. He's half-about to ask Duncan to climb in the back, to rush out the words that Veronica wasn't going to be comfortable in the back seat with Dick, and he really didn't offer this ride to punish her- but the thought was interrupted by a full-five second honk from behind them.   
  
    "Keep your panties on," Logan called back, and put the car in drive.   
  
      _And, we're off, ladies and gentlemen,_ Veronica very closely inspected a fingernail. Scrutinized it. Memorized every boring detail.   
  
     "Dude, are you like hot for V, now? I'll give you points for the hot spy action or whatever, and the girl-on-girl rumors, _yeah_ Ronnie knows what I'm talking about. But on the  _crazy_ scale, I mean-"  
  
      "Shut up, Dick." Duncan and Logan synchronized and Duncan turned his head to look at his best friend.   
  
     "Can you, uh. Drop me at the office?" Veronica chirped up and ignored the flick of Logan's eyes in the rearview.  _Or, you know. Right here's fine. You know what, don't even stop I'll just tuck and roll it's totally cool, the five mile walk is really okay with me._ Veronica swallowed the thought, reminding herself of the client. The meeting. The reason she was letting this happen.   
  
      Marked silence ruled the car after that, and despite herself Veronica wasn't able to cease the internal cringe.   
  
     "Thanks, Lo." Old nickname out of her mouth before she had time to think about it, and there's a beat of  _extra awkward_ where she knew she couldn't take it back, and jumped out of the back seat in front of the office, ready to sprint upstairs and for this entire ordeal to be over. She can't believe she actually just  _wants_ them to ignore her again. Still, she braved a look back at the car when she got to the door; Logan waved, and Duncan even offered the tiniest of nods before Logan took off again.  _That_ behind her, Veronica's ready to reception her butt off. And hey, it was still only like three o clock. There was always the hope she'd have to tase someone.

* * *

  
        By 3:15, Veronica played all the messages on her dad's machine, gotten his files ready for the next day, and then expected the client.   
  
        What she didn't expect, was Lynn Echolls' this-season Prada heels clicking her through the door of Mars' Investigations.   
  
       "Hi, Veronica, how are you?"  
  
         _Stunned?_ _With a side of confused?_  
  
"I'm fine, Mrs. Echolls. I love your shoes. Are you, um. Are you my 3:15?" Veronica stood, ready to redirect Lynn Echolls to wherever she was _actually_ on her way to. But her stammering question is all it takes, and then Lynn Echolls is sitting across from her desk, tearfully recounting her husband's odd behavior and how her tolerance over the years hasn't yielded mercy, only thoughtless, cruel, brazen behavior and half explanations, when he bothered to explain at all.   
  
     Lynn's always been nice to her, Veronica remembered, and even if her son was a -  _is he still a jackass? Later_ \- Veronica made the torn up woman some tea, wishing her dead would be back already.   
  
     Veronica wasn't sure how she could possibly explain having a readily available a picture of Aaron Echolls kissing a missing teenager on his back porch to Lynn.  _Or dad,_ Veronica groaned internally.   
  
     Lynn blotted her false eyelashes with tissues Veronica handed her. She's considering an ultimatum, a confrontation-  _something_ because Lynn suspects Aaron's taken to having women in her home. In her  _family's_  home, and Veronica has it on good authority that Lynn's suspicion right- but when Lynn acted, she wanted proof, something Aaron couldn't explain away as harmless or a misunderstanding or his wife's overactive imagination. Veronica  _really_ wants that for her, too.  
  
     "I mean, after everything I've given him? Those girls, they see the money and the charm and they throw themselves at him, I've always understood that, always. I considered that part of the price I pay for a husband who's talented and wealthy and irresistible." Lynn paused, dabbing at her eye, and seemingly calming down. "But I always said, as long as he took care of me, care of my son, gave us everything- I still love him, which may make me a fool. I'm sure my son thinks so."   
  
     Veronica chewed a lip, thinking. "Logan just wants you to be happy, Mrs. Echolls. I'm sure that's what he wants."   
  
     She thought about Logan vomiting into the Echolls' front shrubbery. Maybe that was mostly about Missy and the obvious heaping creep factor; but Logan had always loved his mother.   
  
     "He's a good boy. I want him to see me be strong for him, you know? For myself." Lynn half-shrugged. "I'm sorry this all came out to you, honey. I'm sure you have your own high school drama to drink tea over. This is why I came to your dad, though. There's really no one I can... talk to about this without the risk of the press hearing. If Logan found any of this out through those tabloid rags..." Lynn shook her head.   
  
     When Keith arrived, Lynn followed him into the main office, leaving Veronica alone to think.  
  
     Veronica was sweating. This was exactly the kind of uncomfortable situation that seething hatred for Logan Echolls afforded her apathy in. A month ago? Her eyes wouldn't have even been  _blinking_ at what he would think of all this. Ordinarily, if something caused him inconvenience she could only hope it was her! Pain? Discomfort? Even better! Now she sat at her desk ready to chew her hair about what to  _do_. By Lynn's own account she didn't want Logan finding out from the tabloids; but celebrity press followed Lynn everywhere- how long could the secret she was meeting a PI stay under wraps?   
  
    Regretfully, Veronica quietly snuck out of the office,  _send_ button pressed on the call.   
  
    "Veronica? Do you need a ride back to your car?" Logan answered on the second ring.   
  
    "Um.."  _Eventually_ , she thought.  _Though not why I'm calling._ Would the conversation be easier in person? Possibly, Veronica sighed. "You don't mind?" She tried to keep her voice from sounding accusatory, but  _Logan Echolls Returns To Life Of Jackassery_ was a headline inevitable to prepare for. Why should she pretend it wasn't.   
  
    "I promise, your suffering oath get's reinstated first thing tomorrow." He hoped she could hear the smirk. He hated how  _easy_ it was; how easy it was to be nice to her again, with little reason. He hated how good it felt, how just her little nod in the rearview in the back seat of his car made him feel like he'd helped her.   
  
    "Don't make me hold you to that." She got her stuff and crept out of the office.  
  
    Relieved, that they're alone in the car, no Dick or Duncan to deal with; she took a second to deal with  _that_ morbid thought. At some point, Logan's personality of the day had become more comfortable than Duncan's awkward, industrial-strength silent treatment.  _One day,_ Veronica mused,  _maybe I'll make Ms. James very happy and confess my dark labyrinth of issues._ Not likely. But how predictable was Veronica's life these days?  
  
    Somehow even though they were alone, Veronica didn't quite know what to say or where to start. Words were usually something she prided herself on not having to try too hard at.   
  
    "Everything okay, Veronica?" Finally, he had to ask, because her shifty silence is almost enough to make him regret wanting to help her at all.   
  
    "You didn't happen to see your mom's car at my dad's office, did you?" Maybe it's not the craftiest way to go about it, but Veronica hoped it wouldn't be too painful. Logan looked straight ahead as he pulled into the school's parking lot. "She's... she's there now. Talking to my dad. About your dad. Also _we_... kind of talked." Betraying Lynn's trust isn't high on her to do list, but Veronica felt right about at least giving him the heads up; she hoped she could at least spare him part of the probable shock. _People see the cracks in their house's foundation_ , she thinks about Lianne,  _but they really expect it to fall._  Or, you know... disappear, but hey, now she was just projecting.  
  
    He held up his hand, to stop her.   
  
    "I'm the one who left your dad's card where she would find it." He confessed, looking at her in his passenger seat. Something about her eyes softened, something in her posture relaxed, and that  _good_ feeling crept up on him again.   
  
    "But why...you know... about your dad..."  _Sleeping with a teenager,_ she left out.   
  
     "My mom wants to protect me, for once." Logan let out a short laugh. "She doesn't care that he sleeps around. He's just gotten careless. Hey, if even  _you_ spotted him..."  
  
     "Twice, maybe three times." She admitted, and opted to ignore the implied dig about her skills as an investigator. There were some things even she didn't want to know. Well, no, that wasn't true. But there were lots of things in people's private lives she could understand them wanting to keep to themselves. "If my dad asks for help on this one..." Veronica paused. The second time this week she'd been brought back to her car, by someone she wasn't sure if she could trust. Actually, by someone who she _didn't_ think she ought to trust. Sighing, she continued. "I really,  _really_ don't want to tell my dad about Missy if I don't have to. So if there's anyone else your dad's..."  
  
     "Thank you. I don't think my mom would want to know that either. In some sick way I think it'd be easier if it's like... Jennifer Aniston or Kirsten Dunst, or something you know? One of my dad's co stars or whatever. Plus, Missy..."  _Still missing,_  he flipped his hand in the air."Just, thanks. I appreciate that."  
  
     "I have my own reasons for it, I promise."  _Okay, that's it._ Veronica exhaled and unbuckled her seat belt.   
  
     Logan wanted to ask about _her_ reasons, he wanted to ask her about a lot of things. He's sure Dick isn't right-  _this_ , helping New Veronica, is just leftover friendship from years of closeness  with Old Veronica, and their recently working together. It's not... _hot for her_ , even if Logan thinks  _butch bail bondslady_ is harsh for what she's calling her signature style these days. Things aren't like before Lilly's death. Things aren't like they used to be. He  _knows_ that. He doesn't need to know Veronica's reasons. He doesn't need to help her with anything. It isn't like they're friends anymore.  
  
     " _Oh!_ I got you a present," Logan broke his inner monologue to contradict himself. And his voice didn't sound _completely_ sarcastic to her. Reaching back behind his seat, Logan pulled forward a jug of car coolant. "Maybe it'll help with the overheating?" It came out as a question, though he didn't mean it to.   
  
     "You know something about cars?" Veronica didn't  _mean_ to look so skeptical, eyes narrowed at him.   
  
     "I...ran into Weevil after I dropped you off. He mentioned it." Pushing the jug into her hands, he decided that was the end of that. The end of even thinking about forgiving Veronica Mars. Her skeptical face hasn't gone away.   
  
     "Okay." Really, Veronica has no idea what that's about. She didn't even want to  _know_ what it was about; well, maybe she could ask Weevil. Entirely too many minutes she'd already spent in the Xterra today, and if she stayed a minute longer she'd have to feel genuine gratitude towards Logan Echolls. And she certainly didn't want to do that. "Thanks."  
  
      After the coolant, her car started, and all she had to do was pray endlessly that she'd make it back to the office.   
  
      About four thousand screaming impulses are running through her head, to not trust this Logan, who gives her rides and recommends her dad, being chief among them. Maybe if she could understand it, it'd be easier to stomach- but why did Logan Echolls do anything Logan Echolls did? Until a month ago, he'd done everything to torture her. Slashed tires, nasty rumors, tongue lashes she still felt the wounds of, even if she'd die before she admitted it to him. Like, a moderately painful death, too, not easy  _let go in your sleep_ death. 


	23. The Boy in Question(ing)

    Veronica had clawed her way out of the darkness and despair of a math midterm- she deserved a few minutes of after-school peace with her dog and the pacific ocean, she thought. It’s unfathomable that some people don’t have access to the beach. Her mind conjured up one of her worst conscious nightmares- her, older, married with brats, living in some midwestern state where beaches were things of myth and corn was all but currency. She shook her head, her daydream interrupted by her cell ringing.   
  
   “You okay, Veronica?” Ah Wallace. Dependable, sweet, Wallace.   
  
   “My GPA’s gonna take a hit, but I’ll probably still get into some of the sluttier colleges; you know, the lesser ones with the lower standards,” Veronica mused, patting her knee, calling Back Up back to her. “My ego’s a little bruised, too. That feeling when you lose a fight you thought you had a chance at winning.” Back Up bound back to her, sand flung in every direction.   
  
    “What?” Wallace asked, exasperated.   
  
   “You know, my math test. We studied all lunch period- the thing with the numbers. Easily the worst part of my day.”  
  
    “I wouldn’t bet your lunch money on that. Veronica, Lamb’s on TV, they just found a body.” Wallace almost never watched TV right after school- his mom was at his brother’s basketball game, and it was dumb luck that Lamb happened to be on every channel.   
  
    Back Up whined at the walk back to the car, and Veronica felt like doing it, too.   
  


* * *

  
  
  
    “ _ No positive identification of the remains has been made as of this report, and Sheriff Lamb refuses to make a statement regarding the Missing Persons Case of local teen Missy Blake. The sheriff also has no comment regarding the series of rumors surrounding the Neptune Killer, or the threatening propaganda local teens made a prank of in the Killer’s honor, just last week. When asked, Lamb reported that he’d dealt with the teens himself, and did not believe them to be related to any actual murders.”  _ __  
__  
_   Dealt with them himself,  _ Veronica scoffed. He’d  _ spectated  _ himself. Not that she wanted her name in the news in this story or any; working  the sticker case for Clemmons hadn’t come up at home, and Veronica certainly wasn’t going to bring it up now, after an actual human body was starting to be associated to the mysterious Neptune Killer.    
  
   What nagged at Veronica, was that if that  _ was _ Missy’s body found in a shallow grave almost ten miles from where her car was found-  _ hypothetically _ , if the two cases were related, Missy’s and Lilly’s, Jake Kane would have had no apparent reason to kill Missy Blake. Either the murders weren’t connected, or her dad had risked and lost  _ everything _ \- his reputation, his job, their house, his wife- for a theory that was being unraveled by another murder. Don Lamb’s face on her television didn’t comfort Veronica in the slightest.    
  
  One unsolved teen murder in Neptune frightened the public, the second in as many years meant panic;  _ the killer among them on the loose _ , the anchorwoman said people feared. Provided it  _ was _ Missy’s body that meant the public would have to go back to acknowledging the dark side of Neptune, the shady city where bad things happened, not just California sun and teens who ran off to reap the spoils of cheap Mexican liquor. Thinking their neighbor could be a killer, living with that fear and uncertainty- Veronica understood why people were uncomfortable living with constant, unrestricted suspicion. It wasn’t always a picnic, and sometimes it was downright difficult.    
  
_   FBI correspondents will not make a comment about their work on the Missy Blake case, except to say that any and all resources the Balboa County Sheriff’s Department needs are to be immediately available, and that inter-departmental efforts can only help the community deal with the loss and fear of a missing teen.  _ __  
__  
    On the couch, Back Up in her lap let out a heavy sigh, and Veronica had to wholeheartedly agree. Her mind thought about a venn diagram, comparisons and contrasts between the cases. Logan and Weevil, for starters, even if she’s still on the fence about their immediate relevancy. Manner of body disposal varied greatly; if it  _ was _ the same killer there’d been some change in plan. Or both had been crimes of opportunity, just at varying opportunities. Manner of death was still unknown for Missy, but her disappearance had been public in a way that Lilly’s murder hadn’t been since it had occurred on the Kane’s private property. Lilly’s murderer had to be someone she knew, while Missy’s murder might be a random act of violence….if Veronica didn’t place any relevance on the untraceable call right before her disappearance. Nevertheless, Veronica did think that call was important, and technically Lamb hadn’t confirmed it was Missy’s body.    
  
    The thought of Lilly’s death as somebody’s opportunity made Veronica physically nauseous. The mental image of her best friend’s blood splattered, as somebody’s idea of problem solving disgusted Veronica. She tuned back into the TV, dragging her mind away from the waves of indigestion that came with remembering Lilly’s body, even after all this time. It was necessary, she knew that- to think about, to analyze- the wa Lilly had been found. The tiniest detail could help solve a case, she  _ knew  _ that, and chided herself for needing a break.    
  
_ Logan Echolls, Missy Blake’s ex-boyfriend, and son of Aaron Echolls- movie star and Lynn Echolls, socialite, has been officially called in for questioning by Sheriff Lamb, who gave a statement regarding Mr. Echolls’ informal questioning as ‘terse and reluctant.’  _ __  
__  
    Veronica swallowed a heavy breath, remembering the look on Logan’s face when she’d personally accused him of being involved in this case. When he’d compared her investigation to something like a colonoscopy. The public wanted these cases wrapped up and disappeared, and so did Lamb. That would probably mean more uncomfortable moments for Logan to come.    
  
_ Logan Echolls was also reportedly involved with Lilly Kane shortly before her death. Many are wondering why Sheriff Lamb has been hesitant to accuse Echolls in the maybe-related cases, citing his far-fallen predecessor, former Sheriff Mars as a reason for the sheriff’s hesitancy to take on some of Neptune’s higher profile citizens.  _ __  
__  
    They just  _ had _ to compare her dad to Lamb. Veronica grabbed her keys and headed to the sheriff’s station.    
  
    Swarmed with press, outside agents, concerned citizens, and probably at least  _ some _ people working, the sheriff’s station was as packed as it had been the night Lilly was been found murdered. Her dad had begged her to go home, to go with Lianne, to stay away from the case, but Veronica had spent all night in the sheriff’s station with her dad, with Duncan, with Logan, too, while they took turns at confused crying and stunned, shocked silence. That was before there was blame thrown everywhere; before Veronica learned how to grieve privately and quietly, where no one could throw her tears back in her face and use her feelings against her, or against her dad.   
  
    She shook her head from the memory, and took a seat in the corner of the station’s office. With no sign of Aaron, maybe he was filming or at home or  _ hey _ with a girlfriend, Veronica could almost sigh with relief that he was anywhere but there. The spectacle of it would already be enough to bear without Hollywood’s silver screen father of  the year.  _ Enough for Logan to bear,  _ she thought and then  _ unthought  _ that. She’s not here for moral support, she’s here to learn about the case.   
  
    Hours later, long after Veronica adjusted to the noise and let her eyes close, a soft shove woke her in the chair and every one of her aching back muscles protested as she jumped up and blinked awake to Logan’s exhausted face and Lynn’s surprise at her being there.    
  
    It’s quieter now, less of a fresh show than when Veronica took her seat, and she only imagined the rounds of questioning Lamb had subjected Logan to. Maybe he even took notes this time, Veronica smarted, in spite of everything.    
  
    At almost 3 am, Veronica knew she was probably going to have to do some explaining when she got home, but she walked out slowly with Lynn and Logan, shared silence between them sort of comfortable in the face of an uncomfortable situation.    
  
    “Our lawyer said Logan’s willingness to talk to the police weeks ago would do wonders with his public perception. Logan says you’re to thank for that, Veronica.” Lynn disturbed the silence in the parking lot, before falling a step behind to answer her cell phone.   
  
   Public perception. Veronica wanted to laugh, she really did, but hadn’t public perception pushed her dad out of office? Hadn’t her entire life been shaped by public perception?   
  
    “Mm. I know a little something about how these investigations tend to run, I guess.”  _ Or how they used to,  _ Veronica kept her issues with Lamb to herself. “You guys were in there… a long time.” She said, and immediately she blamed sleepiness for letting her say it.    
  
    “The sheriff’s not much of  a lip-reader is he?” Logan smiled at her, looking more like himself since he woke her. “Anyway, I should be used to it. It’s always the boyfriend, right?” He walked around the car, opened the door to get in.    
  
    “Missy had more than one boyfriend, Logan.” Veronica heard the words sound bad even to her, but she meant them reassuringly, and her eyes glanced at Lynn who was distracted on the phone. “See you at school.”   
  
   “Don’t hold your breath, Mars. Last time I was accused of murder I got at least a full week of school skippage. Maybe I can stretch it this time, you can bring me my homework. Done, of course.” Even his sarcasm sounded tired to Veronica, and she can’t remember him looking this bad after Lilly. But maybe she’d just been in too bad shape herself to notice. Logan shut the car door, and then lowered the window. “Can I call you later, V’ronica?” He called after her, softly. The questions, the cameras, the distinct familiarity.  It was like dealing with the world’s worst  de ja  vu, like a nightmare on repeat, a bad rerun of one of his dad’s movies.  Of any of his dad’s movies. Maybe even if hadn’t killed them- and he  _ hadn’t _ , even Veronica didn’t really think so- maybe something about him, something about being with him, something about being in his life made them dead. Got them killed. For that, he doesn’t know how to be sorry enough, but he thinks he can at least be angry enough.    
  
    She turned around and gave him a small nod, and watched the car pull away, wondering a million things at once, all questions she’d have to wait to have answered.  __ What was that about patience? Her least favorite virtue.  She seemed to remember a naive moment, when she thought barely escaping a math test unharmed was going to be the worst part of her day.


	24. Chapter 24

 If Logan flipped his phone open and closed one more time, he was going to punch himself in the face. Two days of missed school, two days of press cycles, with Neptune’s eyes glued to the television, about the unidentified body. He flipped his phone open and closed one more time. Then he opened it without closing it, and dialed.    
  
    “Hey.” Veronica answered, not really sure where to go with the phone call. After two days, she’d stopped walking on eggshells that he was going to snap under the pressure of the microscope again, and maybe wouldn’t even call. It’s not that she cares about Logan, she cared about the cases. The cases.    
  
    “Hey.” Awkwardly, he remembered why he called. “I just wanted to say thanks for coming the other night. It um, meant a lot to my mom. She has this inane line of logic that you care what happens to me.” Sarcasm notwithstanding, he rolled his eyes at himself.   
  
    “Your mom handled everything really well, I thought.” Veronica cleared her throat. “Some don’t, you know?” She made herself laugh. “So what’re you...you know, gonna do?”   
  
    Hadn’t he been asking himself that for two days? What answer had he come up with?   
  
    “It’s probably better… for everyone, if I just…” Logan flicked his lips into a  _ pop!  _ sound, “Disappear for awhile, you know? Stay home for a couple of days, lay low. My mom’s sort of been taking the attention hard. Negative attention anyway. Apparently Missy’s parents hired a private detective to  _ check up on me _ or whatever.” He sucked in a sharp breath. “Vinnie Van Low-life or something.”   
  
     Veronica grit her teeth, “Hmm, you must be thinking of Vinnie Van Sleazebag? He’s...a piece of work. But there’s nothing to find, right?” She doesn’t mean it to sound like another accusation, not when he’s probably bunkered in his house, trying to get away from those. But the nagging thought that he never showed her any mercy reared back into consciousness and she clipped any wincing.   
  
    “Right. I don’t know how much  _ People Magazine’s _ gonna care that I didn’t kill anyone, but I admire at least your faithfulness to the truth.”    
  
_ Faith.  _ A word Veronica didn’t put too much stock in, anymore.    
  
    “Um, so anyway, I’ll let you go, Veronica. Thanks for picking up.” He said, sad for a minute.   
  
     “Right, no problem.” Thinking in the silence, she added, “This’ll blow over, Logan. Really, you’ll see, they’ll smell blood someplace else and follow their nose, leaving you way behind.”  _ Like last time _ , she didn’t add, when he dad became the fall campaign for Lilly’s case. Even that press coverage passed.    
  
     “Yeah, you’re right. Out of sight, out of mind, right?” He huffed. “Bye, V.”   


* * *

  
  
  
     Two minutes until the half, Veronica’s eye caught Duncan, Dick, and Logan under the gymnasium bleachers- Dick and Duncan were holding up Logan, Dick put what Veronica assumed was _another_ beer in Logan’s hand. She turned her head back to Wallace’s free throws- the only moments of quiet in the game; he made one and missed one, and Veronica already started counting on the post-game commentary she was going to hear about the foul that gave him the shots. She was here for a distraction, a show of Wallace-like solidarity. Proving to her dad she could do normal teen things.  
  
    After the play was resumed, there was a crash and a bang, and Veronica looked towards the bleachers. A cursory glance around the gym told Veronica that among the cheering and the game’s atmosphere, most people ignored the noise. _Not me, though_. _Gotta go towards commotion, Veronica. Why do you think that is?_ _  
_ _  
_Under the bleachers, Logan’s legs were sprawled in front of him on the floor, spilled beer like a puddle around him, apparently too intoxicated to pull himself up. Duncan and Dick leaned into each other, doubled over with laughter, and before Veronica knew it, she was seeing red.  
  
    “ _What_ is the matter with you?” She knelt down to Logan, but was yelling back at Duncan. _Great re-introduction to the great DK,_ she thought, wondering if she even knew this Duncan anymore. He certainly didn’t know her.  
  
   “Shh, don’t be mad, ‘Ronica.” Logan braved a finger to her lips to shush her, and touched her shoulder with his other hand, beaming up at her. “They’re helping me.” Logan slurred, and  laughed, at Duncan and Dick laughing, and Veronica felt like crying. Brushing his hand from her mouth with a glare, Veronica took a deep, deep breath.   
  
    “I’m not mad,” She measured her voice. “I think you’re all idiots; let’s get you off the floor, how about that? Doesn’t that sound like a good idea?” _Is it really patronizing if he wouldn’t remember?_ His hands gripped her shoulders and she pulled by his elbows, gesturing to Duncan to bring up the rear.  “I thought you were gonna stay home for a couple days, Logan.” She looked up at him, once he was standing- well, swaying on two feet. The gym cheered uproariously, she could hope for Wallace, and Logan’s eyebrows shot up, his face lit up at the noise. _Any minute_ , she thought, any minute she was going to smack him. “Logan, look at me- look at- look at me- I thought you were going to stay home for a couple days; lay low.”  
  
    “Logan Echolls doesn’t _lay low_ , he _flies high_ ,” Dick _helped_ from behind Veronica, and Logan pointed at him over her shoulder, as if to say _exactly._   
  
    Veronica braved another look at Duncan, thinking about how this was probably the most intoxicated she’d ever seen him, with his eyes out of focus and his smile crooked.  
  
    “I’m gonna take him to the bathroom and clean him up. Call a cab, Duncan, go home. You too, _Dick_.” For his part, Veronica thought Duncan at least looked guilty, but maybe he was just drunk. Logan still had a hand on her shoulder, and she started leading him out of the gym, until she stopped short and turned around, almost knocking him off balance again.   
  
   “You know, you at least should _know better_ ,” Veronica almost-yelled at Duncan to compete with the crowd. “Don’t you remember what the press was like after Lilly died? Why didn’t you just chum him up and feed him to the sharks, then?” Steadying his hand on her shoulder, if he was aware of anything she could bet he was aware they were talking about him.   
  
    “He’s just sad,” Duncan yelled back, breath potent enough to kill a man.  
  
    “He’s just _scared_ ,” Veronica flared, “He needs you, Duncan, the real you, his best friend who looks out for him.” She was _not_ going to get emotional now. A year and a half had gone by, now wasn’t the time to get her punches back at Duncan. “Okay? So just drop the sorry look on your face and just… _do better_ ,” She huffed. Dick was still laughing- like they’d been sent to the principal’s office or something. Like it was all a really elaborate, funny joke she was just too bitchy to get. Duncan at least looked a little sobered, as he watched Veronica lead a stumbling Logan away from them.  
  
    “Don’t be mad. You’re always mad.” The words fell out of his mouth ungracefully, as Logan clumsily leaned on her all the way to the girls’ bathroom. Clicking the lock behind them, Veronica took a breath and leaned him against the sink.   
  
    “I’m always mad because you’re always being an ass.” Sighing, Veronica ran paper towels under cool water.  
  
    “Logan, you’re-being an _ass_ ,” He drunkenly laughed at his own reflection, and Veronica could sense the end of her rope rapidly approaching.  
  
    “Come here. Hold this on your face.” Once, a long time ago, she promised them both she’d never do this for him again. It’s like a flashback from someone else’s life, cleaning him up after a party at the Kane’s, where Lilly chewed him out until he was so drunk he couldn’t even speak. It’d been funny, until it got sad, and Veronica remembered clearly, putting him fully clothed into the Kane’s shower and waiting while he returned to himself. “Why would you do this to yourself?” She asked, taking the wet towel and pressing it to the back of his neck.   
  
   Fingers gripping the sink, he shuddered at the cool sensation, at the softness.  
  
    “Why are you being so nice to me?” Eyes red already, he tried to focus on her, one of her at least. Before she could think of an appropriate response he smiled again. “You used to be the nicest girl in the world, ‘Ronica.”  
  
    “Back when you were the nicest guy,” She smarted, and pursed her lips, buying a minute of silence, at least, pressing the towel back to his forehead so he’d stop _looking_  at her like that- like he was looking for traces of Old Veronica her eyes.   
  
    “I like your hair short.” Fingertips brushing through the tips of her cropped hair, abruptly Veronica stepped back, unsteadying him for a second.  
  
    “Flattery will get you everywhere,” She smiled, tight and restrained. “And for everything else- there’s my car. Look- _look_ , you have to promise to behave, okay?” Veronica remembered how much trouble they’d been in after he’d sobered up at the Kane’s. This was going to be worse, with paparazzi and parents and people who thought he’d killed people, all ready to see Logan for the mess he was now. “There’s probably going to be people looking at you, and watching you, and maybe taking pictures, but you have to just stay with me and behave, okay?”  
  
    He made a crossing his heart motion and kissed his fingertips upward, soliciting her deadly eye roll. _Logan Echolls, behave? Yeah, right._ Not even she had that much _will_.   
  
    The school isn’t really the problem, there are some B-circuit news teams filming where _Missy Blake_ went to school, or where _Logan Echolls_ ate lunch, but she dragged him to the car wordlessly, and that part is over. She tucked her sunglasses over his eyes, and could’ve almost laughed at how ridiculous they looked. He posed for a second, but the minute’s gone when she buckled him into the LeBaron and took off for the Echolls’.  
  
   It’s exactly the circus she expected when she pulled up. Press crews, the full kind, wanting Aaron’s input, or Logan’s confession, or even just to dig through their garbage, looking for any kind of bones they could take back to their vulture’s nest.   
  
    “Remember, remember what I said, okay? I want you to do this for me, and then it’s over, you’re home. There’s only the drive way left. We’re just going to put our heads down, and keep walking, okay?” She talked slowly, like that’d help him really understand. She got out first, helping him out of the car and wrapping his arm around her shoulder; jaw set and braced for the crowd that tried to envelope them as she just tried to keep moving.   
  
    It’d been like this for awhile, after Lilly’s death Especially when the nation was holding her dad responsible for the unsolved nature of the case. Veronica could barely breathe in the chaos and the flashback, people shouting questions for Logan, shoving them between cameras and paparazzi.   
  
    “Are you the Neptune killer’s next victim?!” Someone shouted in her face, camera flashing. Before she could hold him back, Logan shoved the man away and punched him, one swift fist to the mouth, and the crowd ate it up.   
  
_“Logan!”_ Whether it’s the flashes of the cameras, the rapid-fire snapping- or her scream that momentarily woke him from a drunken stupor, she didn’t care, because as she tried to cover his body with hers, pushing him towards the house to get distance from the crowd, he actually subdued and cooperated, and they eventually made it to the door.   
  
    When Mrs. Navarro  answered the door, looking disappointed but not entirely surprised, Veronica breathed relief, and felt like she had a kindred spirit in the world. Weevil’s grandmother brought them coffee and made Logan a sandwich, and they sat silently in the Echolls’ kitchen, Veronica’s thoughts all contending for a top spot in her brain.   
  
    “Why couldn’t you just keep walking?” It’s not a _whine,_ Veronica doesn’t whine- but god, she really wants to, because intoxicated, violent jackass played right into the hands of everyone who wanted Logan hanged for two murders Veronica’s convinced he didn’t even commit.  Why couldn’t they hate him for any of the shit he actually _did!_ She had no qualms about that!  
  
    “He was going to make you scared.” Logan turned in his chair, breadcrumbs on his mouth, and Mrs. Navarro excused herself, painful smile at Veronica.  
  
    “No, he wasn’t Logan, he just wanted a story and you gave him one.” Patience strapped, she wiped his mouth, fully committing to the idea that if he ever brought up today again she was going to make it painful for him. Somewhere between him falling in the gym and punching the reporter, Veronica had called a truce. A _temporary_ truce. Out of pity, or for Lilly, or something- she just knew she didn’t want to watch him light himself on fire. But all that had happened was she got a better seat for viewing.   
  
    “He was going to make you scared of me,” Balled fists on the kitchen counter, his jaw still moved slow but there was less overt slur in his voice. Veronica huffed out a sigh, and placed her hand over his left fist.  
  
    “A year of you slashing my tires and threatening to destroy me didn’t scare me, Logan. Remember? When complete asshole you wanted to ruin my life? Like last week sometime...You have to get up a little earlier in the day to scare me.” And okay, maybe it counts as a _little_ patronizing. She’s pretty certain he won’t remember much anyway.  Kept to a joke, she doesn’t have to ponder if he ever had frightened her.   
  
    He blinked slowly, twice, eyes almost focused on her. It’s too quiet for too long, so Veronica cleared her throat and decided maybe he’d be better tucked into bed for awhile.   
  
   Like a toddler, she tucked him into bed, let him kick off his shoes and brought him a glass of water.   
  
    When he caught her wrist, it’s almost a dream for him- Old Veronica with New Veronica hair and a funnier mouth, all twisted up at him.   
  
   “Stay,” Was all he asked, and Veronica weighed her limited, limited options. Stay here, with her drunk, sworn enemy, or go back out through the frenzy of national enquirers.   
  
    “Give me a pillow,” She resigned to the floor, texted her dad where she was, and took stock in the surreal nature of her life. __Always running toward the commotion. Did Lilly teach her that or did she pick it up herself? Turning on her side, facing the bottom of his bed, Veronica let out a heavy sigh, and let her eyes tear for a minute, with exhaustion or frustration or missing Lilly for the millionth time.   
  
    “Veronica?” Broken silence a few minutes later, he looked down at her, curled on his floor, as she looked up. “Why’d you forget to hate me, today?”  
  
    She rolled to face away from him, cheeks still damp.   
  
   “I don’t hate you, Logan,” The words came slowly, while she decided what to say, and that must satisfy him, because after a few minutes he was booze snoring. Eventually, Veronica let herself nap, too. 


	25. The Morning After

  
    Veronica sat up, groaning, and surveyed her surroundings. _Right,_ Logan’s- the floor. So much for pretending _that_ was a really long, late-night-chocolate-influenced dream.  
  
_“And_ she wakes!” Logan was sitting up in bed, newspaper pages scattered around him. “Has anyone ever told you that when you sleep you take on...certain rock-like qualities.”   
  
    “At least I don’t snore,” She gave him a hard look. “How about, next time you take the floor.” Veronica grumbled, finger combing blonde hair into what she hoped one might call mildly presentable.   
  
    “How about _next time_ , neither of us takes the floor.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her fully deserved glare, and then pressed on. “So do you want the good news or the bad news?”  
  
    “Mm. Bad news.” She got up to sit on the edge of his bed and chanced a look at the rifled pages.   
  
    “You know what they say, that Veronica Mars, she’s a sunny optimist.” Clicking his tongue at her, he continued, “Bad news is, there isn’t a single person in the English-speaking world who hasn’t seen this picture of us.” Logan flourished his hand like a magician’s assistant over the front page of the Neptune journal, where Veronica had her hand on Logan’s arm, while the man who’d yelled in her face was sprawled on the ground in front of them.   
  
    ‘ _Echolls’ Son Makes Violent, Bizarre Appearance with Blonde’_ __  
__  
“Awesome. Think my dad’s gonna put it on the fridge? I _bet_ I can just mail this to prospective colleges- you know, for the visual. Maybe a red circle with a little arrow that says ‘ _me’_ so nobody gets confused.” Veronica tore her eyes away from the picture to look at Logan. “What’s the good news?”  
  
    “The good news- is that Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears are making a go of it, so we can all believe in true, young, romance again.” He put his hand to his cheek with a satisfying clap.   
  
    “My dad’s gonna kill me. And then probably you. And then me again, like. Because he loves me.” Veronica was pouting; she knew she was pouting. Some situations, just called for a good old fashioned pout. Then she laughed, giggled really, the confusion on his face made her laugh harder.  
  
    Raising his eyebrows at her, he didn’t try to hide his amusement, “Do you smell toast, Veronica? Are you having a stroke?” He watched her collapse against his bed. “Does ‘Ronica wanna share with the class?”   
  
    “All you…” She sat back up and struggled to stifle the giggles- tears threatening, “Had to do…” she choked out, “Was keep _walking_.”  
  
    And then he’s laughing, mostly because she still is. When she calmed, eventually, cheeks pink, the way she looks at him is some sort of Old-Veronica-Meets-New and it cut off his laughter immediately.   
  
    “Your dad’s downstairs, by the way. I guess you’re not going to school today.” After 9 already, or so the clock said. “I guess our parents have a lot to talk about.” His dad’s still filming on-location upstate somewhere, and _that_ actually merited a ‘good news’ sticker in Logan’s book. “Anyway, I remember that Veronica Mars appetite; Letty’s bringing up waffles. She said.. I was in pretty bad shape yesterday…” Logan trailed off, his hand in his hair.   
  
    Veronica’s dad being there made everything real life- a scary, unrecognizable real life where pictures of her were in papers.   
  
    “How’s your head?” Even not looking at him she sensed the shrug. “Could we…” She felt her nose preemptively scrunch.   
  
   “What?” Logan prompted, watching the odd streak of indecision play in her features.   
  
    “Could we watch the news?” Veronica exhaled. “You know, for that Justin Timberlake thing. If I have competition, I like to know about it,” She added.   
  
   “Trust me, Britney’s no match for you,” He deadpanned, looking at her too long, and then flicked on the TV.   
  
    Forest fires upstate, escaped felon down south, and then _there we go_ , the Missy Blake case.   
  
_“At ten am, Sheriff Lamb is expected to give a press conference regarding the identity of remains found almost 10 miles from Ms. Blake’s abandoned car.”_ __  
__  
“Do you remember this part, from when.. Lilly..?” Logan leaned back against the headboard, eyes still on the anchorwoman’s offensive shade of burgundy lipstick.   
  
    “Of course,” Veronica answered softly.   
  
    “I don’t.” He sounded sad about it, like he’d missed something, which made Veronica shake her head.   
  
    It felt like her own personal curse that she could remember every minute in vivid detail. Like some of it was even in slow motion, she got a bird’s eye view of the damage and the visual wasn’t pretty. Maybe it was better he didn’t know these parts.   
  
    “Do you remember yesterday?” Her smile teased him out of his mournful daze into a shamed smirk.   
  
    “I remember you,” Logan offered gently, and Veronica turned around to tune back into the program.   
  
    “ _In a bizarre scene yesterday afternoon, Logan Echolls’, Missy Blake’s estranged boyfriend, was seen having a violent altercation with a paparazzi photoman outside the Echolls’ $12 million Neptune home. Exclusively, we have a clip of that tense moment.”_ __  
__  
   Veronica took a stiff breath and didn’t dare glance at Logan.   
  
    The clip played, from Veronica’s left- the man shouting about her being the next _Neptune Killer_ victim, and then two seconds later the camera’s jostled while she screams _Logan!_ And then there’s footage of the man on the floor, until it pans back up to Veronica ushering Logan away in the chaos of the crowd.   
  
    “I remember _some_ of that,” Logan admitted. “Is it a bad sign that I’d probably still punch him? Who asks someone if they’re going to be the next victim in a string of murders.” Logan huffed, throwing a pillow across the room. The clip rolled again, and he kept his eyes on her this time- tiny body spread across his like a ferocious guard-Chihuahua in the fray. On the third time, he hears her scream his name like it’s happening again, and it shakes him from the fog of trying to remember.   
  
    “You _know_ how that looks though, right.” _Certainly not great,_ Veronica thought. “Oh, have you um. Talked to Duncan today, perhaps?” _Jeez, pivot much?_  
  
    Taking a minute to blink at her brushing past one of his offenses, he recovered with an eloquent, “Yeah, why?”  
  
    “It’s possible, I yelled at him a bit, yesterday. At school. You guys were _drinking_ in the gym though, like absolute morons.” Veronica shook her head, not about to get mad all over again; just at the sheer stupidity of it, the sheer ease with which the entire thing could have been avoided entirely. _Boggles the mind_ , she sighed.   
  
    “Is that why I remember the girls’ bathroom?” He asked, unsure.   
  
    “Oh, shh!” The _only_ time Veronica shushed someone to hear what _Lamb_ had to say. He had on his _fancy_ press-conference uniform; it made Veronica roll her eyes.   
  
_“Based on preliminary DNA results, dental x-rays, and matched blood sampling, it is the belief of the Balboa County Sheriff’s Department that the remains discovered this week are Missy Blake’s, and that her life was lost during an act of foul play. Ms. Blake sustained multiple injuries around her time of death. From now on, this is a murder investigation, and will be treated with all the respect and due gravity of such a trying time for the Blake family. Over the last few weeks, I’ve gotten to personally know Missy’s parents, and it’s at their urging that I inform the public of any updates regarding their daughter’s murder investigation. As always, if a member of the community has pertinent information we urge you to call 1-800-555-STOP, that’s the Balboa Sheriff’s Department’s Crime Stoppers tip line.”_ __  
__  
     Logan stood, propped his desk chair against the wall, and pulled his heating vent grate from the wall.   
  
   “You learned that from Lilly!” Veronica jumped up off the bed, and Logan scoffed at her.   
  
    “She learned it from me.” He smiled, procuring a shiny, silver flask. The glare that’s waiting for him when he gets down off the chair was historic, some of her best work, and made him snort a laugh.   
  
   “You cannot possibly think that’s a good idea after yesterday. Besides, we haveta go talk to my dad, and maybe you could do me a favor and not be a drunk kid who’s room I slept in last night.” She took the flask from his hands and climbed back up the chair, putting it back in it’s vent spot. “ _Wait a minute._ ” Veronica pulled a small piece of green cardstock from further back in the vent.   
  
  “Will you get out of there- you’re ruining my painstakingly cultivated mystique,” He posed, dramatically, uneasy about whatever she’d found in there to pique her interest.   
  
   “Is this- it _can’t_ be; it _can’t be._ ” In a day of nearly unprecedented weirdness, Veronica catalogs a previously undiscovered but apparently immutable fact. _Logan Echolls has a sentimental side._ “Why would you still _have_ this?” She thrust the old scrap of paper into his hands.  
  
    “Baby’s first detention? Even troublemakers make memories, Veronica. And that was your fault, anyway.” He put the card back under the flask and helped her down off the chair. _That_  was enough of Veronica’s wandering eyes for one day. “If you would’ve just shut up and stopped yelling _back_ at Leroy Fitzgerald, I wouldn’t have had to pants him when he pushed you.”  
  
   “Uh, huh, way to stick to the story.” She shook her head and strolled into his hall. It was familiar this way, in the way he was; in the way they had shared memories of a seventh grade schoolyard argument, but had spent a year trying to tear each other apart until they were nearly unrecognizable. Veronica swallowed the nostalgia like a horse pill, and ran downstairs to meet her dad; Logan blinking at the change in her face, in her body- stiffer, harder, more New Veronica Mars. The changeover in an instant.   
  
_This is the problem, with knowing thine enemy,_ she thought. Their housekeepers offered you waffles, you slept on their floors, and then the knife in your back pinched that much worse the next time.   
  
    “Veronica, are you okay?” Her dad’s been worried, because of course he has. Their name’s back in the press and it’s an unwelcome feeling. With her dad’s eyes on Logan, it’s a safe assumption he’s seen the footage, even if she’s not sure what to make of the coldness. Lynn’s smiling genuinely, at her, rushing through a sequence of _thank you’s_ Veronica assured her was unnecessary. “We should probably get going.”   
  
     Logan’s face dropped comedically like it was a concept he hadn’t planned for, and there’s a space where he wondered if he should go for the friend hug. Weren’t shared dramatic experiences bonding? He thought, and actively repressed the concurrent thought about shared tragedies. Veronica does not go for the hug, though. She hugged Lynn, and acknowledged the pause where if they were friends, she might have hugged him.   
  
    “I’m sorry it was Missy.” She shrugged a _gimme a sec_ , to her dad, who nodded while she pulled Logan roughly by the arm to the house’s foyer area. “I need to tell him that I was following Missy right before she disappeared. My dad’s competent at his job, it’s not like with Lamb- my dad’s gonna find out about Missy and Aaron, and I can’t keep pretending I don’t know anything about it, when I could’ve witnessed her abduction or __murder if I’d just gotten the timing right.” There’s apology in her voice, even as she tried to hammer it out. She’s sorry for Lynn, for Logan, too, if reluctantly.   
  
    It’s a thought that hadn’t occurred to him- that they’d followed Missy just nights before her disappearance and apparent murder. Logan fought at a shudder at the chill in his bones.  Not to mention, he theorized it was probably figuratively killing Veronica to know something first and haveta play ignorant possum.  
  
    “I know that, Veronica. You should tell him.” He gave her a sidelong glance, feeling incredibly guilty for the past couple days. He tried not to even think about the past year.   
  
    Watching the Mars’ leave, Logan kissed his mother’s cheek, another form of apology. Didn’t any of them know he was just so damn sorry?


	26. Detour Through the '02

“ _Before_ I- show you what I’m gonna show you, I need you to remember that this was before we were being share-our-bad-days people, okay? So this is a grand-fathered-in act of withholding.” Veronica sighed, stalling. But that was the problem with stalling; the longer you put off something uncomfortable, the worse the discomfort got, like a festered splinter just digging in. “I _know_ I should’ve told you. Logan asked me to keep it to myself but Dad-”   
  
    “Veronica.” Keith slowly nodded, reminding himself that it was a _good_ thing Veronica could still surprise him. It was good, right?   
  
    Sliding her laptop across the table, Veronica swallowed dryly and tried to gauge her dad’s reaction to the pictures of Aaron and Missy face-sucking.   
  
    “How and why do you have this?” Closing the laptop, he waited for his daughter to explain.   
  
    “That’s _it_ ? No firm warning, no recoil-” Veronica stopped short and spent a minute calculating. “You already got his cell records and figured it out,” She huffed out a breath, not missing his patient-dad-face still waiting for her to keep talking. “Before she went missing Logan paid me an ungodly sum of money to spend a couple nights finding out who Missy was cheating with.”   
  
    “Must’ve been a tough discovery.” Keith shrugged. “Are you and Logan..hanging out again?” Running his finger down an open file, he applied little pressure, and Veronica almost choked on her Skist, giving him the best reaction she could. More than once during their friendship that kid had worried him, and after everything with the news this week and the on-camera violent outbursts over his daughter…. Keith needed a little reassuring.   
  
    “Let’s just say he still doesn’t get the friends and family discount and leave it at that.” Veronica managed to hold her snort back. “What do you think it means?” Veronica gestured to the laptop before tucking it back into her backpack. She’d planned this reveal for her lunchbreak, a sort of pull-pin-and-run grenade tactic, but now she was worried she misjudged something.   
  
    “This means however much I love my daughter, it’s not enough.” Keith dropped a kiss on top of her head. “You’ve been sitting on this the whole time.” He didn’t mean it to be a question. “Lasagna, tonight? I’ll handle the Echolls, Veronica.”   
  
    And there it was, the classic Keith Mars warning, Veronica should’ve timed it. For all her dad’s self-styled PI voodoo magic tricks, she knew there was always an extra card in her deck that gave her a leg up on him. One of the key-words being _leg_ . If she needed Aaron Echolls, certainly his penchant for underage blondes might come in as a handy exploitation device. But’s let’s save pimping yourself out til at least Plan C, sound good, Veronica?  


* * *

  
  
  
    “I’ll take… _What’s She Thinking for $400,_ Alex.” Wallace met her in the courtyard afterschool, spotting the trademark furrowed-brow-of-thought from a mile away.   
  
    “Gonna cost you more than that, you should know that.” She shook her head, clearing whatever thought she’d been gnawing on.   
  
    “Have you felt a disturbance in the Force today, Supafly?” Wallace looked at her hard, then put his hand on her forehead. “Are you sick? Am _I_ sick?” Snatching his hand back, he put it to his forehead. “Strange… I feel _fine_ , and yet… I haven’t heard the words ‘can you do me a favor’ in like five minutes, so what gives? Don’t _tell_ me you’re retiring.” He laughed, bumping his shoulder against hers.   
  
    “Ha _ha._ ” She slung her arm over his shoulder, and started walking them to the car. “I _was_ gonna use one of my lesser lackeys for this, but if you’re _volunteering_ ,” she looked to him, smiling, “you wanna do me a favor?”   
  
    “Alright, I walked into that. What do you need me to do?”   
  
   “Lasagna. Movies. My place?” The relief in his face was totally inoffensive. _Totally._ Wallace tried not to laugh, that would only encourage her.  He jerked his head to get her to look towards Weevil heading towards them in her car.   
  
    “V- you got a minute?” Weevil caught them about to pull out. “I see you’re not overheating today.”   
  
    “Hey, watch it, man-” Wallace started, but stopped when Veronica laughed.   
  
    “The car- the other day-” She shook her head. “What’s up, Weevil?”   
  
    “Why would a sweet little old lady like my grandmother need to see trouble like you?” He draped his arm over the side of the car, shooting her a _look_ . “Wanna follow me back for a second?”   
  
    Veronica weighed her options. “Lemme drop Wallace off and I’ll go straight over, okay?” Wincing to Wallace, she added, “I’ll pick you up after Weevil’s. Lasagna, movies, my place?” She felt relieved when he nodded. “I’ll see you in a minute, Weevil.”   
  
    He nodded, too, and Veronica hit the gas.   
  
    “I don’t know why you trust that kid,” Wallace shook his head.   
  
   “Who says I _trust_ him. We- help each other. Plus, Letty Navarro helped me with Logan the other night; I owe that woman.” _But what could she want with me?_   
  
    “Ah, yes, the other night. Why aren’t we talking about that again? Because that’s the reason my mom’s gonna think I’m hangin’ with Norman tonight. This week in our house you’re kind of a bad-news-accomplice, and I mean that literally- according to the news, you’re bad news. So remind me, why’s the other night an off-limits conversation?” Wallace looked skeptical.   
  
    “Your mom thinks about me that much? Please tell her I’m flattered.” Veronica frowned. “And Norman _again?_ Dude, that guy’s kind of a Wallace-hog.”   
  
    “Says the girl blowing me off for Weevil’s grandma,” Alright, he could catch a hint when she threw it; she’d tell him about Logan eventually. Eventually, Veronica got around to telling him what he assumed was a solid 80% of the drama of the week.   
  
    “I’ll text you when I leave Weevil’s. I’m not blowing you _off_ , don’t be so dramatic. Go cry to Norman.” She laughed as he got out. “Tell your mom I say hi!” He walked into the house, shaking his head, leaving her to drive over to Weevil’s.   
  
    Waiting by the gate, Weevil let her in, and Veronica felt like she’d been handed a test she seriously didn’t get to study for.   
  
   “Do you know what this is about?” She followed him.   
  
    “I know my abuela’s uneasy. And I know if she tells me to flip the sofa cushions one more time, I’m going over there to straighten out Echolls myself,” Weevil warned.   
  
    “Logan? This is about Logan?” If she could get through five minutes of her day without the L-word, Veronica promised a bunch of deities eternal gratitude. It was like Logan Echolls had become her own personal buzzword; there even when he wasn’t there! She sighed at Weevil’s half-shrug.   
  
    “I know about that thing in the paper…” He said, shooting her a look with his eyebrows up. “My abuela likes you, okay?I guess that’s why she’s coming to you.” Weevil opened the door to the house, finally. “ _That_ and who else is there- Lamb?” He laughed at the face she pulled just at the guy’s name.   
  
    Tea already on the table, Veronica joined Letty and heard all about ten years of misadventures of being privy to the private lives of the rich and famous. From the weird found-objects, the things Letty pretended to not-see, and the odd requests from the Echolls’ family, all.   
  
    “Who minds tap water in their ice cubes?” Letty demanded, and shook her head, with Veronica sipping her tea listening, and Weevil never far from the table.   
  
    Letty didn’t seem to mind Lynn, so much; in an over-dramatic, showy way, the woman could be polite, even if she managed little grace on her benders.   
  
    “Two days ago- she gives me a phone- says I need to save her life and get rid of it for her. Save her life, _tonto del culo_ .” Letty shook her head and ignored the hard-blink from Weevil. “Mr. Echolls has many…”   
  
    “We call them _sidepieces,_ grandma.” Weevil chimed in, smiling until his grandmother slapped his arm. Veronica had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing.   
  
    “It’s not my _business_ what they do in their marriage,” Lety put up her hands. “But I know that this phone belongs to Mr. Echolls. I’ve heard him talk to girls on it before...Mr. Mars asked me, when he came to get you, if I know anything about these women- he’s working for Mrs.Echolls?” She handed the cell phone to Veronica.   
  
    Veronica blinked.   
  
    “Do you know if Aaron called Missy on this?” Veronica asked, breathless. He really _was_ being careless if his wife was finding his cell phones and confiding in the housekeeper.   
  
     _“Missy?”_ Weevil’s head snapped to Veronica. “The other strange Missy was getting was her boyfriend’s _dad?_ That’s…” Weevil’s eyes flicked to his grandmother and then back to Veronica. “Disturbing,” was the word he settled for.   
  
    “You’re telling me. You didn’t get to see the sideshow up close and highly personal.” Veronica shook her head.   
  
    “I thought this might help your father help Mrs.Echolls.” Mrs.Navarro poured herself more tea, stirring in some sugar. “I don’t know why she wouldn’t have given it to him herself…”   
  
    Veronica figured Lynn’s moment of wifely defiance had probably been more about keeping the phone away from Aaron, less about who else got their hands on it. Plus, it wasn’t like the cell records weren’t already pulled.   
  
    Veronica left, dismissed from the Navarro home after gratuitous tea and too-sweet moments between Weevil and his _abuela_ , around dusk; her stomach aching for copious lasagna, her mind aching for missing answers, and her heart aching for a movie night with her best friend. _Who says a girl can’t always get what she wants?_   
_  
_     Aaron Echolls’ phone burning a hole in her pocket, she was more relieved than ever, knowing her dad knew about Missy. Veronica shook her head. Secrets came out in Neptune, it was practically their town motto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a little dialogue heavy even for me, sorry about that! lots've stealthy action in the next one, i swear


	27. Every Bond Needs Her Villain

 Veronica covered her mouth with her own hand, painfully aware of how  _ loud _ her heart beat apparently was. Was it always that loud? Should she see a doctor or something?  Also, one of Lilly’s shoes was digging into the side of her ass very uncomfortably.    
  
    “Interesting… Caller ID says Veronica Mars, but I find it unlikely since she seems to have deleted me from her universe. Should I assume you have another one of my schemes foiled and you’re really just calling to brag? I  _ knew _ I didn’t put enough thought into evil-doing this week. I’ve been distracted by headlines, and suspicion of murder, sorry.” He’s pretty surprised to hear from her, even if the contact isn’t entirely unwelcome. After all, she’s one of the few people he’s managed to convince he’s not a serial killer, and didn’t that count for something? But maybe he’d be in a more friendly mood if she hadn’t put him on ice following the morning after their sleepover.   
  
    “How fast can you get to Duncan’s?” She whispered directly into the phone’s mic, making a mental note of all the digs she was going to get in as  _ soon _ as she didn’t have to worry about being overheard.    
  
    “Why are you whispering?” He actually sounded amused, and  _ really _ she’s glad about that. At least her embarrassment, misfortune, misery, and bad luck could still bring somebody joy; and if she could count on anything, she could count on that somebody being Logan Echolls.    
  
    “ _ Please _ , Logan, I need you to come to Duncan’s.” She froze her body even  _ more _ rigid, hearing voices, or maybe the TV. There are words in her head about the other day, about how she helped him and could he  _ please _ just do this without the usual Logan’s-an-ass shade of flair.    
  
    “Where are you, Veronica?”   
  
    “I’ll pop my own tires for a month, just get here and let me explain  _ after _ .” Desperately, she wanted to take a deep breath to clear the panic from her voice. But shallow breaths made less noise, and that had to be the priority. Ordinarily, in a sticky situation there was Wallace, or Weevil, or her dad, and if nothing else, brute force and Mr. Sparky. She knows she can do this without Logan, if she had to she could. But he could make this easier, make it quicker, if he wanted to, and right now there’s just not enough air in the closet to make staying a minute longer than necessary a desirable option. She  _ could _ though. Manage without him. Hadn’t she done that for a year? “You know what- nevermind, I’m fine- I can actually-”   
  
    “I’m on the way, Veronica. Must be dire if you’re calling me.” His tone bit, but Logan knew something about that feeling; he remembered needing her help when she might’ve withheld it. And it’s a bald-faced lie to say he’s not curious why Veronica would thaw out enough to need him to go to the Kane’s. “I can read between the lines, you know. You need  _ my  _ help. Tire slashing jokes aside, of course; you never proved that, you know. Some detective,”He teased, listening to her breath in little puffs over the phone. She must’ve been holding it awfully close to her mouth.   
  
    It’s difficult to imagine New Veronica Mars needing anything, especially from him, but it’s happening, so then again, who needs an imagination?   
  
    “Just… just-” Truthfully, Veronica hadn’t planned on him answering and actually agreeing. Maybe her escape plan might actually work. “Keep them distracted in the living room, or by the door, okay? Use your-”  _ Charm _ would just go straight to his head. How  _ badly _ did she need his help? Lilly’s heel making an imprint into her butt said desperately, and Veronica couldn’t really argue with shoes at a time like that.   
  
    “Masculine wiles?” He’s two minutes out and it’s still a little hard to wrap his head about aiding and abetting New Veronica. But there was a thrill in his chest, and that was enough to go on for now. “Are you telling me I’m the diversion while you vacate the premises?”    
  
    The whispers, the desperation… he imagined her face like a scared cat caught in her own trap.    
  
    “Something like that.” Veronica’s hushed voice put Logan back in motion.    
  
    Pulling up to the Kane’s, he gathered those  _ masculine wiles. _ Only Jake’s and Celeste’s cars in the driveway, where was Duncan? Either way, Logan shrugged that that might actually make this easier. There’s a throbbing in his chest as he realized  _ is this what she feels all the time _ ? And suddenly, the career choice makes a weird kind of clicking-in-place sense to him.    
  
    “How much time do you need?” He asked, practically hearing her thinking, fuming- maybe even, over the phone. The Kane’s had always been nice to him; well,  _ mostly _ , anyways- he  _ had  _ banged their daughter, and at times, exhibited a certain amount of bad influence over Duncan,  _ for his own good _ , Logan reasoned.    
  
    “Realistically? Seven minutes or less?” She was still a little fuzzy on the details, there would haveta be a certain amount of playing by ear. “They don’t call me ‘daddy’s little sidekick spy’ for nothing. Look, you’re the insurance. If Celeste or Jake… caught me…” Veronica’s whispers trailed off, thoughts of either a public lynching or the ground just swallowing her body whole, momentarily flooded her mind.    
  
    “Meet me at the car in less than seven, then,  _ Ronnie. _ ”   
  
    Veronica heard the doorbell on her end.   
  
    “Celeste! Ravishing as ever, and Jake- how’s business? Is Duncan home?” The show, Logan’s always been good at. Veronica closed her phone noiselessly, ready to move.    
  
    She remembered being fourteen and sneaking in and out of Lilly’s house. Silently, she thanked Lilly for encouraging that mischievous streak in her; who would she be without it? After slipping out the window, Veronica shimmied down to the roof’s angled landing, thankful she’d decided to wait until night and cursing the height deficiency everyone was always teasing her about. Without Lilly to remind her to bend her knees, Veronica reminded herself, and it isn’t very dignified or graceful,  but she made it to the ground with little noise and little pain.    
  
    The lawn’s fairly expansive, but fairly exposed in an uncomfortable way. It’d be the quickest, but…   
  
    Half-nostalgic, half-erring on the side of caution, Veronica followed the path against the fence her and Lilly used to take to and from the street. Once she could see over it, Veronica scraped herself along the side like she was miserably out of practice, and swung her legs over the street, and jumped down to the sidewalk. Out of curiosity, and okay, pride- she checked her phone; four minutes and change. Her car was around the corner, but Logan’s was barely out of view of the house. Twinge of regret starting to settle in her, now she would owe Logan for help with something she could’ve done on her own.  _ Insurance. _ Well, he’d at least certainly been that, she put her back on the XTerra and waited for him to reel himself back in.   
  
    When he emerged, arms swinging by his sides, smirk a mile wide, Veronica knew she was in trouble. Maybe not dead-best-friend’s-heel-digging-in-your-ass-as-you-break-into-her-house trouble, but trouble nonetheless.    
  
     “Tell me, Veronica Mars, why did I just have a lovely chat with our friends, the Kanes?” It’s not that he’s surprised to see her by the curb when he gets there after a solid ten minutes of  _ being the diversion _ . It just sort of means she was serious, that was a real thing he just helped her with, and he wanted every real detail.    
  
    “Thank you,” She muttered. “For doing that. For coming at all. It’s sort of a long story,” She started, trying to remind herself that this was Logan Echolls, notorious (yes, that kind of notorious) bad-boy, known for less-than-upstanding deeds. She hardly owed him an explanation, and she definitely didn’t owe him her embarrassment; probably not, anyway.    
  
    “Believe me, I have time for this.” Opening the passenger door for her, he swung his arm in invitation to a more private conversation. He thinks she still looks sort of shaken, like that cat in the trap; glad to be free but aware of it’s number of dwindling lives. Again, there’s the thought that it feels good to help her, and  _ this _ had actually been fun in a way he really liked.    
  
   Veronica held out for another second, hating the way her heartbeat still flared from the adrenaline. It was embarrassing; she liked being the calm one, especially in situations other people would be scared.    
  
  
    “Okay. It really started this morning. When I woke up…”   
  
  
    When Veronica woke up, Lilly’s voice in her ear was singing about a secret, screaming about it, and when her eye caught on the air vent, Veronica had a moment of devious inspiration.  _ Thanks, Lilly.  _ Like Logan, or apparently  _ because of _ , if he was to believed- Lilly kept a stash of secret items from Celeste’s prying eyes or Duncan’s curiosity up behind the vent in her room. Of course her dad, or any other less competent Sheriff-shaped people, wouldn’t have looked there after her death for anything clue-worthy or sensitive. But  _ Lilly had a secret _ and Veronica needed to know if it was worth dying for.    
  
    Admittedly, staking out the Kane house while she knew Duncan was on an assignment for the Newspaper… privileged, insider information put to good use. With no sign of Jake or Celeste, Veronica snuck in through the garage’s side door-   
  
    “You know the security code to the side door on the garage?” Logan interrupted, half-incredulous, half in awe. New Veronica could be a little terrifying, he had to face that fact.    
  
    “It’s Duncan’s birthday, only backwards.” Biting her tongue a second too late, she wondered if maybe it wasn’t a good idea to give out people’s security codes. “If there’s ever a break in, I’m pointing them your way from now on,” She smiled.    
  
   “What, as like, a  _ diversion?” _ He watched her roll her eyes, but he thought he at least earned that one.    
  
    “Have you, um. Have you been in her room, since…?”   
  
    “Once.” When he had snuck in during a sleepover with Duncan; just to feel her sheets, remember her in a tactile way. They’d been cleaned, of course, scrubbed of all their Lilly-type-scandal, but they felt the same as he remembered them. Soft, comfortable. “Just once.”    
  
   “This is going to sound.. Less than kind, but I think out of all of us; you, me, Duncan, Lilly, I think it would’ve been the hardest to lose her, no matter what.” Hadn’t she lost all of them? Lilly’s absence hurt the most, but she  _ had _ lost all of them that year, even herself. “She made us better, I think.”   
  
    Bringing up Lilly’s an instinct he usually fights, especially with Veronica.    
  
    “She definitely made me better.” Exhaling, Logan scratched his head, and glanced in rearview mirror at the flash of strawberry-blonde he thought he saw.  Sitting in his car, too close to her, it felt strangely like bonding with New Veronica, and he swallowed a joke about how any minute she was about to snap her fly-trappy jaws on him and forget his existence again. “Why’d you walk away from me in school yesterday?”   
  
    Being honest with himself, he’d only gone to school for her, or maybe because of her- because she seemed to believe he was innocent; if she could believe him, when he’d gone out of his way to punish her, to be awful to her, to be cruel...why couldn’t anyone else? But the way she’d snapped her focus away from his eye contact in the hall stung more than he knew it had a right to. Sure, the question sounded desperate, but for once, Veronica actually needed him and maybe now she actually owed him.   
  
    “Why wouldn’t I?” She didn’t want to laugh, she really didn’t, but they’d had a whole five minutes of civility since Lilly’s death, and she doesn’t understand how that could’ve  _ all _ been fun for him. She remembered moments in his face where it definitely wasn’t. Neither of them had pulled their punches when they were being honest, and she may not have initiated it, but they had been less than friends for a year. “You said so yourself, when we followed Missy; it’s not like we’re friends.” Silence overtook the car for a minute, while she was painfully aware of him intently looking at her face.    
  
    Her body’s gone tight again, he noticed, like before she left his house, and he wanted  to know so badly what that meant. Like deciphering a goddamn decoder ring, he wanted to get out a paper and pencil and make the corresponding charts.    
  
   “I mean, look, if I’m off-base just say so, but why’d you help me that day with the camera-guy? Why not just leave me on the floor in the gym? Why sleep on my floor and why call me now? Why’re you even sitting in this car?” Anger was the last emotion he wanted to play, but the clip of her shielding him from the cameras and pushing him towards his front door, kept playing in his head. She looked  _ worried. _ She  _ looked _ like they were friends.    
  
    “Well, why’d you drive me home before that? Why’d you talk to  _ Weevil _ about fixing my car? Why’d you want your mom to call my dad and why did you-  _ god _ , Logan just tell me when other you comes back, then.” After a  _ year _ of conditioning, a year of competing traumas and betrayals and seeing the worst of humanity, she’s definitely not going to let herself lose it in front of him, now.    
  
    “The other me?” His mouth twisted into a pained expression, fairly confident he deserved whatever came next.   
  
    “Bond-villain you,” Veronica sighed, looking anywhere but near him. “Spray paint on my car, nasty notes in my locker, calling me things to my face and  _ not my face _ , oh, the flat tires, the dedicated social outcasting, when does  _ that  _ Logan come back? I’m not- I’m not that  _ stupid _ , that we’re just gonna start saying hi to each other in the hall, having casual sleep-overs, and then  _ that _ you is gonna-” Veronica exhaled an exhausted, shaky breath, and ran her hair behind her ears.    
  
    “Gonna what?” He said, his voice soft; it takes immense effort to keep his hand off the way her shoulder shakes, even as she’s upset about him. He’d done that, all of those things.   
  
    In her head, Veronica saw a visual line in the sand; something either not to be crossed, or not to be crossed back from.    
  
   “When you were- well, you were still drunk, when you were drunk, do you remember asking me why I forgot to hate you that day?”  _ Okay _ , so flirting with the line, hovering across, felt safer than jumping over it, off a hundred foot cliff.    
  
   “Yeah,” He sounded embarrassed, remembering her curled on by his bed, her eyes shiny with tears she turned to hide from him. He remembered. “You said you don’t. You don’t hate me. Do you hate  _ Bond-villain me _ ?” Bond-villain. Logan crossed all Bond films off his viewing list for eternity, feeling nauseous because that had probably been even in the realm of what he was going for, at least initially. Especially initially.  He’d vowed to ruin her day, everyday, of course she fucking hated him. Of course he was the Bond-villain to her Bond.    
  
   “No.” Small, but sure, her answer came, and when he looked thrown, she at least had that to savor. She had people she hated; her rapist, Lilly’s killer, Don Lamb for a million reasons. She’d never really hated Logan, had she? Hadn’t that been the problem?  “When’d you start forgetting to hate me?” Slowly, she moved her eyes to him, trying not to think of anything else, fighting a million competing thoughts to only focus on this still minute.   
  
   “When nothing destroyed you.” He answered honestly, like he’d been thinking about it for awhile. Since she rubbed his back while he’d been hurling in his bushes, he’d been thinking about it, actually. Thinking about how his best  _ Bond-villain-esque _ efforts couldn’t break her. A dropped chin was all he got for his best efforts, and sometimes she matched eyes with him; after he left her a nasty note, after she found a flat tire. She’d look to him, sparkling defiance in her eyes, and at some point it became about that. Not about hating her,  but about craving that  _ look _ from her that said he’d never win.   
  
  “Well.” Veronica wasn’t sure where to go from there. “Are you gonna keep trying?” Ignoring her own voice break, she willed him to ignore it, too.    
  
  Something between a laugh and a sob escaped from his chest, something unswallowable.    
  
    “I’m not gonna be the Bond-villain, anymore, Veronica.” Just above a whisper, he didn’t trust his voice anymore, either. Not the way she was curled into herself, like she was protecting all the important parts from him.    
  
    “How can I believe you?” The words sounded too honest, too open, for the Veronica she wanted to be right then. “Ms.James says I have abandonment and resentment issues. Apparently, I don’t forgive easily.”    
  
    “I remember, you never spoke to Leroy Fitzgerald again, after that shove.” The way she blinked up at him made him inhale another shaky breath, and she watched the shudder in his shoulders like it decided everything.    
  
_ It’s enough, for today _ , she thought, and tore her eyes away from his for a moment.   
  
    “You never did buy me that shovel.” She reminded him of the beginning, in a way. In slow, small movements, she wiped the lines of her eyes, done for  _ now _ with the latest in Logan Echolls drama theater.    
  
    He spent a second in decision, in watching her, before he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her into his chest.  _ An apology over a year in the making _ , he thought, as she tucked her head under his chin; if he was still thinking of her in terms of Old Veronica and New, it would’ve been an Old Veronica move. But she’s New Veronica, and she doesn’t hate him and he doesn’t hate her. Sucking in a hard breath against his chest, Veronica closed her eyes tightly for a few long minutes, and then he let her go back to her side of the car.   
  
    “Aren’t you curious what I found in Lilly’s room?”  _ Again, with the rapid pivot. _ But Veronica trusted her mouth to say the right things when her brain was otherwise occupied, and if she was going to move on from tonight she was going to have to start moving, first.    
  
    “Did you find anything?” Quizzical, he watched that  _ look _ come back into her face. Determination and spite, he decided it looked like. With something especially New Veronica thrown in.    
  
    “Do you have anything that plays  _ this  _ sized tapes?” Fishing in her pocket, she pulled out a square-shaped videotape, held it up, and couldn’t help but  let herself smile small when Logan nodded yes. “Drop me at my car and I’ll meet you at your house. If we hadn’t spent an hour crying in your car I would say there’s no time to lose.” It’s an attempt at a joke, to bridge the look on his face with the feeling in her chest, and sure, it isn’t  _ funny _ but maybe that wasn’t the point. Maybe the point was just to keep surviving. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hate me a little bit, too


	28. It Was Him

    “I can’t believe I risked being burned at the stake by Jake and Celeste all for the disgusting privilege of viewing a sex tape of you two.” Veronica huffed, casting her eyes away from the screen where her dead best friend was currently o-facing. It was the  _ same feeling _ , the one she got chasing her mom. Like she was always right there, so close to the truth, but so far away.   
  
    “Veronica…” Logan’s eyes were fixated on the screen. “I never filmed us. Not like this. I don’t even remember this.” It’s his dead girlfriend, in all the ways he remembered her, and it’s his house, sure, but… Logan shook his head. “Gimme a minute, I wanna see where that camera is.”   
  
    “It’s  _ fine, _ I know you two were gross, I was the best friend, remember? You don’t haveta act all innocent, Lilly sure liked to brag. I guess I’m just lucky she didn’t try to show it to me herself.” She followed him into the room where Lilly had apparently had pretty great sex, if the vocal performance was any indication. Veronica was just glad she hadn’t gotten an eyeful of Logan in bed. She was glad, wasn’t she?    
  
   He has a sinking feeling, because none of this really makes sense.  Logan jumped up on the bed, tapping what looked like a tiny lens on the ceiling fan, and Veronica followed the input wire to the room’s TV console. Opening the doors under the TV, she whistled.   
  
    “I can’t even get a DVD player, this is like state of the art porn-making.” She turned back to him, the hard edge of his face disturbing her. “Hey, what is it?” Voice devoid of all it’s edge, she doesn’t like the face he’s making. Her hand on his shoulder shook him from his thoughts, and she turned his attention to the drawer under the tape recorder.   
  
   “Veronica…” Logan inhaled a shaky breath. “L.E.   R.S.    _ M.B.    _ L.E.-” Logan dumped a container of tapes on the floor with a hard shove, scattering dozens of tapes.    
  
    “Logan.” The sheer volume of tapes made Veronica a little nauseous. If this was an act, Logan should’ve been the actor in the family. She picked up the tape closest to her, labeled K.C. and popped it into the player on the TV. Back muscles came into view, with a soundtrack Veronica would’ve titled ‘heavy breathing,’ and she was about to make a joke that he could make his fortune in porn B-roll footage, until a hard cut in the film showed Aaron Echolls and a woman laying naked in the bed. “Okay, now I’m gonna be sick.”   
  
    “Dick’s  _ stepmom? _ ” Logan ran his hand across his face, and did it suddenly become a million degrees hotter in here? He felt himself sweating. “Veronica, I didn’t make these. Any of them.”   
  
_ “Logan.”  _ Veronica knelt to the heap of tapes, and picked up the one titled M.B., willing tears to disappear from her eyes. “Is your dad home right now?”   
  
    “He’s downstairs. Why- you want him to autograph his work? Maybe give you some p-”   
  
    Veronica clamped her hand over his mouth as he started to raise his voice. In the year since Lilly’s death, the year he’d become the Bond villain, the year she’d spent shut out and shut down, he’s never seen the look on her face she’s wearing then; with her eyebrows high, and her eyes wide with tears, and her breath all puffy. It’s enough to stun him into silence if anything is.   
  
    She still doesn’t move her hand from his mouth, and there’s a pause or two, beats of silence before she commits her thoughts to actual words for them both to hear.   
  
    “It’s him, Logan,” She whispered, fighting back a sob at his face of slow realization. If the past year’s taught her anything, she’s not very good at gauging Logan Echolls’ reactions, and she doesn’t want the worst of him to come out now, even if she can’t imagine finding out anything worse. “I think… I think he killed them.”   
  
    Her face is serious, and  _ scared _ ,  and even through her palm across his mouth he can feel the spike in her pulse. But his dad… he wouldn’t… he couldn’t… Veronica took her hand off his mouth, and moved it to his shoulder as his face broke it’s usual removed front.   
  
    “He killed Lilly?” He asked, in a small, broken voice barely above a whisper, resting his head against her shoulder.   
  
    They’re clinging to each other while the world falls down around their ears, Veronica realizes, and she lets hot tears escape down her cheeks.    
  
    “I need to call my dad,” She whispered gently, holding him against her, until she leaned them both back against a wall and breathed some distance between them. The way he’s looking at her- half glass-eyed and stunned, made her want to rethink the plan. But this is who she is now, this is who she has to be now; someone strong enough to do this, and she needs his help.   
  
     “Look at me…” She ran a hand down his face. “I need to call my dad. If I... “ She took a breath to fight a sob, looking into his face. “If I leave you for a minute, you have to stay here, you haveta stay away from him. You can’t say anything to him, Logan. Everything has to be fine until my dad and Lamb get here, okay? If I’m right,” She thought about Lilly, her hair swinging over the car they were washing, thinking she had so many good secrets left, “Logan, if- if he’s already killed at least two people…” A sob squeaked from her chest, “He could hurt you, okay? I’ll be right back, please just stay here and wait for me, okay?”   
  
    She remembered pleading with him in her car, not to fall into the reporters’ trap. She remembered him punching that guy and creating a newstorm like she’d never spoken to him beforehand.   
  
    “Please, Logan, please just  _ keep walking _ this time, alright? I’m...so sorry.” Hugging him tight again, there’s almost a second where she can breathe in-between chest heaves and stomach flops. His face mirrored her distraught disgust.   
  
    “He killed them, Veronica. My own dad.” Logan blinked tears, nodding at her all the same. There’s a laugh or  _ something _ bubbling inside him, like he should’ve known all along, like he should’ve seen the family trait in all of it. “Go call whoever.” He thumbed a tear away from her top lip as she detangled.   
  
   “Stay here, okay? I’m gonna call my dad and get the tapes from your room and I’ll, I’ll be right back.” Her bottom lip’s still shaking and he still looks terrible, but she figured this was the best they could do, his dad being a murderer, who happened to be downstairs probably eating popcorn on his couch at the moment.    
  
    She took a deep breath, and ventured out to her car.    
  
   If he’s going to survive all the long moments without her, all the long moments he could be killing his dad (or at least  _ trying _ ) with his bare hands, he’s going to have to keep breathing. He does. He sits on the bed with his hands tight, back straight, and every thought he has rushes with Lilly, and Missy, and Veronica, and  _ his dad. _ His father. You know, it was going to be somebody’s dad, or somebody’s kid, or somebody’s spouse; somebody was going to have to know  _ the mysterious Neptune killer _ , Logan’s just so damn angry it had to be him.    
  
    “Dad?” Veronica hated the squeak in her voice, she gripped the steering wheel  _ hard _ with one hand; sat still in her car, and exhaled. “It’s Aaron Echolls. The… the killer; it’s Aaron Echolls. I’m in his house; if I can get Logan to leave we’ll meet you at the sheriff’s station and I’ll call you from there if I don’t hear back from you by then. When you get this message meet us there, okay? It’s him, Dad.” She covered her hand with her mouth, and let another shaky sob escape. “I love you.”   
  
    Smoothing her hands down her cheeks, Veronica took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself down. In her head, it’s Lilly that calms her down; rights her breathing, when she can’t do it herself. He wasn’t going to get away with this; Veronica wasn’t going to let him. One more deep breath, and she went back to the house. 


	29. Family Affairs

    Veronica crept through Logan’s room in the dark, feeling her way, looking for her bag and Lilly’s tapes.    
  
    “Veronica Mars.” The light snapped on and Aaron stood leaning against the doorway, arms folded, barely concealing a gun in his hand. Veronica froze her step, hand on her bag.  “You know, you kind of have a name in this town, and I know they say all press is good press, but I’m not sure that’s true in your case. Let me guess, you’re here for an interview?” He looked at her darkly, eyes boring into hers. It was so easy to hate him, for killing Lilly, for killing Missy even, for letting the last year happen at all. It was so easy to hate him for it and he just stood there,  _ amused _ and threatening. People like this existed in the world, and how could she compete with them? Standing face to face with him, face to face with Lilly’s killer, Veronica didn’t know how she could win this, what favors she could call in to save herself now.   
  
    “Actually, I’m here to help Logan with a school project, I just forgot-”   
  
    “Now, Veronica, do you think  _ stupid _ men get away with murder? Cause I really don’t.” Aaron sighed, slowly shaking his head at her. “I should’ve known, given your reputation, your  _ family’s _ reputation, that letting you start poking around, asking me questions...I should’ve put a stop to that, that’s my fault. What can I say? Cute blondes have always been a weakness, and we all have them, I’m only human, after all.” He sighed, letting his hands fall to his sides, one hand cavalierly gesturing with the gun.    
  
    Veronica remembered her promise to Lilly in the car, she remembered her promise to herself. He was not going to get away with this. And she definitely wasn’t going to become the  _ Neptune killer’s _ next victim.    
  
    “Trust me, Mr. Echolls, I don’t- I don’t know anything, really.” Breaking her stillness, she stepped back an inch or two; gave him some space. In her head, she knew running- running  _ anywhere _ would give her better odds at not being shot, and especially better odds at the shot being fatal. But knowing that and running towards a gun to the only door in the room, were two very different things.   
  
    “Suppose I discovered an intruder had gotten into my home? Would I not be well within my rights as a homeowner and careful, legal gun enthusiast, to protect my family and property?” Sucking a tooth, he looked at her questioningly. “And I think we’ve seen how well your name does in the press. You and your father’s.  _ I’m sorry officer, it was awfully dark and I heard a stranger in my home. That Mars girl, she’s always been troubled, I just didn’t realize she’d gone criminal. _ ”    
  
_ If only he knew his  _ acting _ is criminal,  _ Veronica swallowed the thought.    
  
    “You really don’t have to do this. I told you, I don’t know anything. I know my dad’s looking into you about mistresses; I offered to stop by your trailer but you know I didn’t find anything noteworthy. You  _ know _ that.” Veronica braved another step back, trying to keep the anxious squeak out of her voice, trying to convince him of her cluelessness.   
  
    “What I  _ don’t _ know is where you got these tapes and you’re gonna tell me  _ that _ before I kill you.” Aaron watched her face change when he held Lilly’s tape up.    
  
    Hadn’t she told Logan to place nice with the family murderer? Usually Veronica could count on hating her own advice, but now, between a gun and a hard place, playing nice and getting away seemed like the only way to go.  _ I’m sorry, Lilly,  _ she took a deep breath.   
  
    “Veronica?” Logan called from the hall, and Veronica could’ve cried if her body weren’t paralyzed by fear of the twice-murderer with a gun staring at her.     
  
    Aaron stepped inside the room, pointing the gun at Veronica, “Now, look what you kids are making me do. Move towards me and she dies, son. You should’ve stayed out of this.”   
  
    Logan’s eyes flicked between Veronica and the gun, and he put his hands up in surrender, facing his father while he slowly backed towards Veronica, keeping himself between them. Going after his dad now, holding him responsible for Lilly, for Missy, for everything else, could get Veronica hurt, and more than anything Logan’s felt the weight of causing Veronica Mars pain on his conscience. Protecting her now feels like it could balance some of that out, make her lip stop shaking in fear, get the tears out of her eyes- and Logan decided he wanted that more than hitting his father just yet. Especially when his father had a gun.   
  
    “Logan,” Veronica breathed for what felt like the first time in too many tense moments, and reached for his elbow when he came near. “I was just telling your dad about that school project.”   
  
   “She was just lying to me, son, now get out of the way.” Aaron dismissed Veronica’s claims of innocence with a flourish of the gun. “You always said Veronica Mars was-”   
  
    “I didn’t mean any of what I said, Dad, and none of it was right. Put the gun down, okay, no one else has to die.” Forced softness against the hard edge in his voice, an errant thought ran through Logan’s head about that rumored taser. He could only hope some of the rumors were true about Veronica now. He felt the shake in her hand against him, and that’s more important than facing death.   
  
    “See that’s where you’re wrong, son, where you’ve always been wrong. You never think  _ big picture  _ enough. Letting this one girl go could unravel everything for me, Logan, and I’m not about to let that happen.” Aaron hadn’t let the gun falter, even as it now pointed at his son standing in front of Veronica.   
  
   “You really did it, didn’t you? You really killed them. What- banging them for your home spankbank wasn’t enough you had to kill people I loved?” Logan exhaled into a short laugh, shaking his head, thoughts swimming with Lilly and Missy for a moment. They weren’t great people, they weren’t even great girlfriends, but their lives had meaning, especially to him, he doesn’t understand how his dad could’ve done it, but he knows that he did.    
  
    Veronica pressed her hand to the small of his back, drawing his attention to her. His face was blotchy and feral, and he was barely holding back tears when her met her eyes. Slowly, she nodded to him, easing her fingers against his back, reminding them both to just take a deep breath.   
  
    “It’s more complicated than that, you know that, Logan, and those girls- they, they  _ threw  _ themselves at me! You would’ve been disgusted. I did you a  _ favor-” _ __  
__  
    Veronica side-stepped Logan and put her hands on his chest, holding him in place before he got the chance to react, and Aaron straightened his back against the wall at the outburst of motion.    
  
    “C’mon, son, it doesn’t have to be like this anymore. Remember when you were younger and we’d have fun, I used to pick you up early from school and it’d be our secret from your mom?”   
  
    “We’ve shared a lot of secrets mom never knew about,” Logan’s eyes darkened, and Veronica wasn’t sure what she was missing in that, but it didn’t seem good from the way his core tensed in disgust.    
  
    “This is just one of those things we have to deal with as a family, Logan, and I’m not gonna let you ruin your life over some other girl.” Aaron sighed, raising the gun back to Veronica at Logan’s side. “Just this one more problem, and then things around here are going to be different, you’ll see.”   
  
    “If you hurt Veronica, you’ll have to kill me, too, because the second you lay a hand on her-”   
  
    In a flurry of sudden motion, Aaron stepped to them and struck Logan’s face with the butt of the gun, and threw Veronica to the floor in the process.    
  
    “You’ll have to allow me to parent later, I have more pressing issues, Logan.” Aaron turned his back to Logan, as Veronica was scrambling across the floor to get behind a chair. “You know, your reputation makes me wonder if I’d get away with it anyway. We both know there’s no  _ proof _ , and you and your dad certainly have a penchant for wild accusations. We both know what happened last time your dad tried to take on Neptune royalty. That being said, killing you kills any hint of suspicion-”   
  
    With his face still bleeding, Logan tackled Aaron from behind, yelling to Veronica to run,  __ run now as his dad was pressed face down into the carpet. Veronica did run, she ran for her bag, pulled out her taser and stomped on Aaron’s hand, forcing him to let go of the gun, and grabbed it. Aaron began wrestling back, pushing Logan aside with his back to Veronica, when she pressed her taser to his back and kept hitting the trigger.  For Lilly and Missy and her and the last year and Logan and...   
  
    After a few seconds, Aaron relented his attack and fell limp, moaning in agony to the floor.    
  
    “If you think I’m not going to kill both of you now,” Aaron snarled a  laugh and Veronica bent down and tased him again, causing fresh agony.    
  
   Logan blinked at her a few seconds, gun still in her hand awkwardly like she hadn’t decided what to do with it, yet. She crossed the room to him, thrusting the gun in hands and pressing her face to his chest; it wasn’t over, but maybe the worst of it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> almost there!


	30. Before The Sun Comes Up Tomorrow...

    “He still has Lilly’s tapes, Logan,” Veronica swallowed the lump in her throat with only mild difficulty, all murderer-type things considered. She still couldn’t breathe normally, just unsure little heaves against his chest; never taking both eyes off Aaron for more than a second.   
  
    When they started hearing sirens coming, Veronica’s never been more grateful for her father.  _ Ever.  _ Especially now that she’s seen other options out there.  _ Pedophile, murderer…  _ Veronica eyed Aaron, grateful for Logan, too; grateful for the way his arm’s slung over her like they’re just going to be fine.   
  
    “I don’t know what would’ve…” Veronica took a second to think, “Happened, you know, if you didn’t-” Veronica Mars doesn’t blubber or openly weep, but she knows she’s cried because when she pulled away to look up at him, there were big, accusatory wet spots on his chest.   
  
    “Veronica,” She watched him swallow, maybe a lump of his own, “You would’ve been fine, I know that. I’m just glad you’re okay.” He’s still holding the gun, carefully, away from her- away from how her arms are wrapped around him, away from how her cheeks are glistening and damp, and away from how warm she feels pressed against him. It doesn’t change things dramatically; his father’s a murderer, who killed people he loved, his face is still bleeding, and things feel bleak, but she’s holding onto him and it does change  _ something.  _ “We should go meet the Sheriff,” He offered, talking almost right into her hair, in the same quieted whisper she was speaking in.  _ Feeling _ her nod before she pulled away, he saw her eyes back on Aaron, who was still laying on the ground.    
  
    Logan may not have wanted his father dead, for all sorts of complicated reasons he’s not about to contemplate, but the sounds of pain stopped too many seconds ago for him to be satisfied or comfortable. Slipping the taser from Veronica’s hand, he pressed it to his father again, just to be sure the arrest could be as quick and hopefully painful for him as possible. “Whoops, did I do that?” Voice long gone dry, Logan turned away from his dad’s pleas for his son to stay, to understand, to  _ not do this _ .   
  
    Veronica called out to the Sheriff’s department, to her dad, that they were coming out with a loaded gun, and after that there’s mostly the blur of blaring sirens, the rush of a fresh press crew, and long, long hours at the Sheriff’s station. She felt hounded and exhausted, and when her dad insisted they go home, they bring Logan, too. Lynn was on her way back from Aspen, and the way Veronica insisted he sleep on their couch is enough to convince Logan and Keith that it’s not a bad idea. They go through what happened, with Keith, one more time, over hot chocolate at around 6 am.    
  
   During the Sheriff’s interviews they’d been separated, but it’s both easier and more difficult to get through retelling it with Logan next to her. The not-distant-enough memories are more potent, more real, with his interjecting commentary and pointed looks.    
  
    “But, Veronica where did you find Lilly’s tapes?” Keith saw a look pass between Logan and Veronica; a moment of silent mutual deliberation that Veronica broke with only a frown, no verbal response. “I’m not Lamb, you don’t have to  _ protect your sources _ from me. My seventeen year old daughter solved the crime of the century that I ruined our lives crucifying the wrong man for.”    
  
    “Don’t be  _ dramatic,  _ Jake Kane’s hardly crucified, and I’m gonna tell you,” Veronica fiddled with her empty mug. “I...got them from Lilly’s bedroom. By a...less-than-strictly-legal method of investigation; also, I made Logan an accomplice.” She winced.   
  
    “Next time I want getaway driver though, I’m putting my foot down, no more back seating me in these investigations.” Logan smiled at her, breaking the tension of Keith’s glare. Despite everything, Logan’s too tired and too angry to let cyclical thoughts of his father run through his head anymore tonight. Memories like his girlfriends’ murderer being arrested, of his dad yelling his name from the back of the Sheriff’s squad car. Knowing his father, Logan would bet on a trial, something flashy and contentious and they would probably have to testify. Questions about what it all  _ meant, _ were going to suffocate him if he let them, so instead he fell back on a time-honored Logan Echolls’ coping-and-distraction technique; looking at Veronica Mars, studying her almost, mental tabulations of the quirks of her eyebrows, the twitches of her lips. In the days after Lilly’s murder, the  _ year _ after, really, it’d been about keeping that pain fresh; keeping an eye out for signs of grief, or pain or struggling on Veronica Mars’ pretty face. It’s a little different now, a little altered- he’s looking at her sitting at her kitchen counter, mascara around her eyes worn into smudges, and this time she’s looking back, softly, without sticking out her edges at him.    
  
    “That’s going to come out eventually, Veronica,” Keith took their mugs and placed them down in the sink. Like rinsing out those cups, Keith was going to leave the ramifications of his terrifyingly smart, brave, if-slightly criminal daughter’s actions for another day. The Kanes would have to be dealt with, again. For now he's just deciding to feel relieved, that she's smart and safe and it's over in some ways.  “Goodnight, honey. Get some rest, you two. And Logan,” Keith made sure he had Logan’s full attention, “Couch for you.”   
  
    “I’m just hoping Back Up’s gonna let me bunk with him.” Logan gestured to the dog spread across the Mars’ living room couch. “Goodnight, sir. Thanks, for-”   
  
    “Goodnight, Dad,” Veronica watched Keith go into his room and shook her head smiling at Logan. “It’s almost 7, there’s gonna be sun, soon.” She didn’t make a motion to leave his side at the counter, though. His eyes are  _ on _ her now, in that Logan way- it’s all familiar and still strange. “Should probably change that band-aid over your eye, that was a pretty nasty cut. And I… think I ruined your shirt, sorry.” Discolored spot on his chest and gauzed band-aid over his eye reminded her of Aaron, pointing a gun at her, ready to kill her like he killed Missy, like he killed Lilly, until Logan stepped between them. Did Bond villains do that?   
  
    “Veronica,” He smiled, shaking his head at her, and she got that New Veronica face at his tone- all eyebrows and mystery and prepared-for-anything twinkle in her eyes. “Do you think I care about any of that?” Sure, the cut still stung, but he doesn’t even like this shirt and he’s gonna keep it- add it to the stockpile of mementos from memories that couldn’t be quantified as good or bad or ugly. He covered her hand with his on the counter, taking in her tiny, pale digits, her clear fingernails. Old Veronica always let pale pink paint chip off of them. “You remember- what feels like a hundred years ago now- you asked me my question; what made me forget to hate you?”   
  
    “You...said it was when nothing destroyed me.” Her expression hasn’t changed, she’s listening so  _ hard _ almost trying to figure him out in real time- letting him play with her fingers at her kitchen table like his dad hasn’t just been arrested on two counts of murder, half a dozen statutory rape cases, and Veronica and Logan’s own attempted murders.    
  
    “I fell in love with you.” Gently and slow, he tucked cropped blonde hair behind her ear, it’s short, blunt edges the physical reminder to both of them, that maybe Old Veronica and New Veronica weren’t binary concepts- that maybe he’s in love wit the full spectrum. She hasn’t blinked, hasn’t taken a breath since he said the words, and he’s not sure what she’s thinking with her eyes turned up at him like she’s surprised he should be in love with her. After all, he isn’t surprised a bit. “You set your jaw when you’re scheming, but you smile when a plan’s in motion. I think things do get to you, a little bit, and I’m sorry I ever hoped they’d get to you a lot.” Running his hand along the line of her jaw, he almost could’ve laughed at the way she looked taken aback. “My dad’s a murderer- who killed the first girl I ever loved- and all I can think about, all I want to think about, is you, being safe from him, you letting me keep you safe from him.” He inched closer, a little discomforted by her stunned silence now. “In the interest of full disclosure, I am also thinking about you letting me hold your hand. Because these babies are  _ soft _ do you moisturize?” He smirked at her, crooked with his eyebrows up, and the only thing that stops his laugh then is her lips on his.    
  
    Her hand left his for the back of his neck, pulling him closer, tighter, nearer than either of them guessed she’d ever want him. Bottom lip between her teeth, New Veronica doesn’t hold back, whether it’s exhaustion or adrenaline or something neither of them care to name, there’s a sweetness and a breathlessness he’s never felt before, and he should’ve known kissing her would be a religious experience. His fingers weaved through her hair, in a way that tickled her, and she’s so, so glad he’s not a Bond villain anymore. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mostly an epilogue-wrap-up-type chapter coming up next. thanks for sticking with me :)


	31. Spring Breakers

   “Nuh-uh. Nope. Not here.” Wallace shook his head, greeting Veronica and the Logan-shaped-tumor sucking on her face. “Our table, _our table.”_ Knuckles rapped on the courtyard’s table, Wallace dropped onto the bench. “You can sit here man, but just pretend I’m your pastor.”  
  
    White teeth gleaming through her now gloss-lacking lips, Veronica smiled at Wallace and looked between him and Logan.  
  
    “I don’t have a pastor.” Picking a fry off Veronica’s plate, Logan smiled and stopped his hand halfway to his mouth before changing it’s direction to her lips at her glare.  
  
     “Pretend I’m your parole officer, alright. I _do_ have to eat here.” Laughing, Wallace was still shaking his head.  
  
     There was still an element of tension, albeit thinly covered with fries and teasing, that Veronica figured she wouldn’t recognize her life without.  She’s still the metaphorical lightning rod for conflict in Neptune High, and _fine,_ so she brings some of it on herself these days. At least they'd mostly managed to stay out of the tabloid-circus-void created by Aaron's arrest and trial. At the furrow in her brow, Logan ran his thumb along her knuckles, and he was positive both his imaginary pastor and parole officer wouldn’t object too harshly to that.   


* * *

  
  
     _“Sure_ you don’t wanna run off to Cancun and chase babes in bikinis all spring break?” Veronica was pressed between Logan and his locker; there’s still an undercurrent of _how dare they_ that rippled through the school at their more public moments of affection. Compared to his father found guilty of murder a month ago, and her mother drunk dialing her from somewhere in Arizona a week ago, a little public kissing was a blip on the Logan/Veronica scandal radar scanner.  
  
    “Are you _sure_ you don’t wanna run off to Cancun and be a babe in a bikini?” Logan kissed her nose as she feigned contemplation at the thought. “Cause then I’m sure. Road tripping through Arizona it is. Although, I wouldn’t oppose a bikini, you may be onto something there, Mars.”  
  
    “I wouldn’t oppose you wearing one, either, I’m not stopping you,  feel free.” Veronica shook her head and let a laugh escape at his face.  
  
    Aaron’s guilty verdict had let practically all of Neptune breathe more easily, but Veronica felt she and Logan had earned it a little bit more than the rest of the town. After Aaron’s fancy, all-star defense lawyers hounded them each on the stand, there hadn’t been a shred of a secret left unaired; she remembered him smoothing her hands in his lap over the verdict. Hands that were _now_ on her hips, reassuring her physically, that he was all-in for the Chase Lianne Mars Mystery Spring Break Tour.  
  
    Over his shoulder, Logan spotted Duncan doing his best _ice, ice baby_ routine. For weeks, Logan’s tried to be casual about the freeze out- rumors circulated throughout the school for months that Duncan wasn’t over Veronica, and even if he said otherwise, Logan couldn’t help but suspect that those weren’t just rumors.  
  
    “Do you still haveta…” Logan gestured over his shoulder and tried not to mock the way Veronica had to lean up on her tip-toes to see over.  
  
    “Yeah…” She sighed. “Still gotta talk to Mr. Freeze. Now or never? Hope I don't have to break out my tazer.” Eyebrows up, Veronica smiled through a kiss on the cheek, as she walked away from Logan. Weeks into investigating her own mother, the troubled teen Lianne years, the mockery of stabilization Veronica could barely trust her own memories of… some of what she’s learned has to do with the Kanes, and that means it has to do with Duncan. “Hey, could we… talk for a sec?” Veronica asked, and Duncan looked up like her presence startled him and he hadn’t been glaring in her direction just moments ago. _Right_ , Veronica took a deep breath.  
  
    “About what, Veronica? You want my laptop password? Or hey what about my locker combination? Tell you what- they’re both written on a post it on my desk in my room, maybe you could just go get it yourself then, save us the trouble of chatting.” Duncan went to push past her, but as he gripped her shoulder to do so, he made eye contact with Logan who was still waiting down the hall. Taking his hand back slowly, Duncan rolled his eyes, but stayed where he was.  
  
    “I’m _sorry_ about that, I swear that’s the only time I’ve ever done that; it was wrong, but we needed those tapes- you _saw_ how they helped in court.” Folding her arms over her chest, Veronica could’ve smiled at herself if she wasn’t so busy wincing- when the conversation started with breaking and entering and a sex tape at a murder trial but could actually get more uncomfortable. “That’s actually _not_ what I need to talk to you about, though. Do you… know anything about my mom and your dad being king and queen at their prom? Apparently they were like… a pretty serious thing in their day at Neptune High.”  
  
    Veronica watched Duncan’s face change at the mention of their parents, but she didn’t track it to shock exactly.  
  
    “It’s just… I’ve been going through what’s left of her stuff, and there’s… a lot of your dad.” _I think they might be carrying on a twenty year affair. And what are your thoughts on that, possible-brother-slash-ex-boyfriend?_ Veronica chewed her lip. “I was actually sort of wondering if you thought they’ve had contact since… well, since she split.”  
  
    The prospect of asking Jake Kane himself is so unthinkable as to be laughable; after Aaron Echolls’ trial Veronica had steered clear of the Kanes and they’d stayed clear of her, and Logan.  
  
    There’s a whole plan involved, with Logan and the road tripping, based off of cell pings and phone locations, but if Veronica could just pin down what exactly she might be looking for, what exactly her mom would be doing out there in the first place, she felt like she could’ve had a lot more confidence in the plan. Months of abandonment crisis aside, Veronica had sort of hoped with the chaos of Lilly’s murder, and subsequent murder trial died down, maybe Lianne might be feeling like coming home again. There’s another part of her, the part that survived Bond villains and ostracization and a murderer pointing a gun at her, who wanted to be past wanting her mother; who wanted to be past chasing her around the country and never even getting a glimpse. The drunk dial from a bar in Arizona in the middle of the night nearly a week ago, mostly just had Veronica spinning her wheels confused. _I left to protect you_ , was all her mom had to say after months, Veronica rolled her eyes. Sure, it was something, but it didn’t feel like the kind of explanation a girl could really cling to.  
  
    “It’s not like our parents are pen pals, Veronica. Don’t you haveta get back to your shadow.” Duncan nodded his head to Logan, who gave a look that was practically feral.  
  
    Veronica only sighed, “You two should talk. Put the rulers away and just kiss and makeup. It’s not like…” She paused. Confusion about Neptune’s upper echelon's dynamics weren’t new, but she could barely tell what Duncan was even mad at Logan over.  
  
    “He’s my best friend and you’re my-” Duncan stopped himself short of whatever he was going to say, because the second he took a rough step towards Veronica and she backed off, Logan stepped between them. Of course she had heard the rumors, that Duncan was jealous, that Duncan was still in love with her, that Duncan was in love with _Logan_ , and to Veronica they all seemed about equally plausible. They’d been broken up for eons in high school years, and a long time by even regular standards. And he’d dumped her by pretending she hadn’t even existed; Veronica just didn’t figure how that led to being _his_ \- anything.  
  
    “Got everything you need then?” Logan kept his voice low, and his head turned to Veronica, his body tuned to her. In the weeks of chaos and murder and trials and rumor and lies and suffering and just plain, Neptune-variety weirdness, he figured he’s had a glimpse of the life Veronica lived while he played the bond villain, and Logan was exhausted at just the glimpse. A spring break in Arizona, wiping drool off her shirt while he drove sounded perfect; even if he was unsure about the mission regarding Mrs. Mars.  
  
   “Yeah….yeah,” Nodding, Veronica watched Duncan walk away in a half-cringe, and she’s not about to examine that; not when her mom’s out there, _protecting_ her, from what Veronica’s dying to know. She couldn’t help but smile anyway, shaking thoughts of Duncan far from her mind. “Do you need to stop somewhere and pick up that bikini?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, in all honesty, i /love/ those TV programs about real life cases and trials, etc (my boyfriend call it murder porn) and the idea for this Vmars tangent really came out of how many murderers on those shows only get caught because they killed once, got away with it, and killed again, and i 1000% think Aaron would've been one of those guys, given the chance. anyway, thanks so much for reading this is by far the biggest project i've actually ever finished and if nothing else i'm really proud of that. thanks again! your questions and comments were so appreciated writing this and they're so appreciated now that i'm done! (for now??? who knows :P)
> 
> Edit: now working on a sequel- All's Fair in Love, Lies, and Family. Check it out if you want! Thanks!


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